Obstinate
by SunDriedLilies
Summary: Emma looked up once more from her book and stared at Regina through green, expressionless, eyes and nodded. "Okay, I believe you." And she did believe Regina, there were probably tons of people waiting to get in bed with her, however, Emma was not one of them. Swan Queen
1. Chapter 1

**My first crack at Swan Queen, you can tell me if it sucks. I don't own anything. **

Regina Mills sat slumped in the backseat of her town car alongside her two best friends. She kept her eyes glued to the world that lay outside of the tinted glass windows, memorizing the outlines of each building that they passed. They were on their way to,_ Cassie Le Blanc's _(_Cassie's _for short), an upscale lounge located just outside of the heart of Manhattan, New York. Initially, Regina thought that her friends invited her out for a night of relaxation and casual fun, but she quickly came to the realization that Kathryn and David just wanted a reason to hang out and they'd invited Regina along just so that she wouldn't feel left out.

But, they could have saved their invite, for Regina still felt like she was the only one in the car while her friends where off somewhere, probably lost in each other's eyes or where ever else people in love wander off too.

Cupping her face, she let her forhead rest against the cool glass. Her eyelids fluttered shut as she tried to focus on the all the noises around her, but since the windows were rolled up, to block out the cold, all she could hear was the soft murmurs of her two friends. She briefly wandered if she could somehow feign sick, so that she wouldn't have to endure all of the lovesick stares and cheesy compliments throughout the night. However, she knew that if she tried to back out Kathryn and David would more than likely end their night as well, and she didn't want that.

Regina could hear the two talking lowly when Kathryn giggled at something David had said. She never did understand the dynamic of their relationship, it was so obvious that they liked each other, and for some time now, she could never understand why neither of them had ever said anything to the other. But it was not her business nor of her concern about the feelings they possessed for one another. So she just let them be, she was never one to meddle in other people's business, even if they were her friends.

Words simply could not describe the happiness Regina felt when the car had come to a slow halt. She looked outside the window to make sure that they had reached their destination, and sure enough the driver had pulled up right in front of _Cassie's _to drop them off. Regina wasted no time in swinging the door open and hopping out of the car. She walked ahead of her friends, not really wanting to attract any unwanted attention from the surrounding people and to escape the harsh cold of New York, and entered the building. She shivered a bit and waited a few paces in front of the doorway for Kathryn and David to catch up to her.

"You would have thought we were kidnapping you with the way you ran out of the car." David joked as him and Kathryn strutted into the lounge. He had his hand placed on her lower back, and Regina couldn't help but notice how handsy they were starting to get with each other as well, and they still refused to acknowledge their feelings for each other.

She couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Skinny love. " She commented before turning on her heels and searching the place for a table in a secluded corner. Regina didn't like to be anywhere where people would stare at her, though that was bound to happen considering the fact that she is indeed a B-list celebrity (actress).

"What does that even mean?" Kathryn asked from behind her, confusion lacing her voice.

"Sometimes we already know the answer to some questions, we just don't realize it." She headed for a table while her friends followed, both sporting perplexed expressions, but not concerned enough to pry for a real answer. They figured it was just Regina being Regina, she was always saying something a little weird or corky.

They all took respective seats at the table Regina had led them to. Kathryn and David sat side by side while Regina sat in front of them. She relaxed a little in her seat and took in her surroundings with a faint smile. _Cassie's _was her favorite place for a few reasons, one: they always had nice music playing. Two: there was something about the dim lighting that made the place more attractive. Three: it was a high profile lounge so, she didn't have to worry about people running up to her and begging for an autograph or a picture with her and four: they had floating waitors.

Regina was just aimlessly scanning the through the crowd, as a way to keep her mind off being a third wheel when her eyes landed on someone sitting at the bar. The blonde hair was what initially caught her eye, captivating her right from the start. It was so golden and bright, such a contrast to the surrounding atmosphere that the woman stuck out like a sore thumb. The next thing Regina noticed was the book she held in front of her along with a pen and paper laying on the bar. And the last thing she noticed was the absolutely stylish overcoat the woman was sporting. Regina contemplating on going up to her for a short while before glancing at her friends and finally making up her mind to just go for it. She could use a little fun tonight anyway.

"I'll go order a bottle or two." She muttered absentmindedly with her eyes on her target.

"Champagne please." Kathryn called out, but her request fell upon death ears.

Regina walked confidently towards the bar, making her way throught the sparse crowd, a few familiar faces could be seen here and there, and she offered them curt nods in acknowledgment, but kept on her way. When she was on a mission, nothing could stop her, and she was definitely on one tonight. She sat exactly one seat away from the woman and waited for the bartender to approach her.

"What can I get for you ma'am?" The man asked with a friendly smile.

"I'll have two bottles of your finest champagne delivered to the table in the far corner." She said smoothly and the bartender smirked before he nodded.

"I'll have that sent over for you ma'am."

"Thank you." Regina smiled and watched the bartender turn to walk away.

Once the he was sent on his way, Regina chanced a glance to the woman beside her. She studied her for a few seconds before looking away again. She was even more appealing up close. But, Regina just couldn't grasp the concept of this woman coming to a lounge _just _to read a book and write notes. They were at a bar for crying out loud, the last thing you do is read books and take notes. She'd quickly realized her leering and turned away, but the blonde woman was completely unphased by her, more than likely unaware that Regina was even at the bar.

"Ahem." Regina attempted to get the woman's attention, and it was an attempt that failed miserably. So she tried again after waiting a moment and still not getting a response. "Excuse me, Miss..." Regina frowned slightly when the woman did not look up from her book but only raised her eyebrows in acknowledgement. "My name is Regina Mills, and I was wandering if you would let me buy you a drink."

Regina waited another long moment before the woman finally decided to meet her gaze, and just when Regina thought she couldn't be any more captivating she stared into green eyes and was proven wrong. "No thank you." The woman said, simply, before averting her attention back to her book.

For a moment Regina was stunned into silence, but she quickly recovered. "How would you like to join me and a couple of my friends for champagne?" She asked smoothly.

This time the other woman didn't even lift her head from her book. "I would prefer not to, thank you." The woman retorted before she picked up her pen and jotted something down on the piece of paper in front of her.

Regina watched the woman with furrowed eyebrows, studying her every move. "And just why not?" She asked curiously.

"Because that would still constitute as you buying me a drink." She said distractedly, studying the pages of her book.

Regina turned in her seat to face this mystery woman fully. "And what's so wrong with me buying you a drink? It's a free drink on your part."

"And what's so wrong with me declining? It's more money in your pocket." She retorted, meeting Regina's challenging gaze full on. Green orbs stared into brown ones as Regina thought out what she would say next.

"I assure you, more money is not any of my concern." The woman never offered her another answer before she went back to reading her book, and frankly Regina didn't appreciate the blatant diregard she was being shown. "Why won't you accept my offer?" She asked with a slight pout forming on her lips.

"Because I hear it in your voice..." She commented.

"Hear what?"

"The insincerity... You're offering me a drink, not out of the kindness of your heart, but because you want something from me. Perhaps to sleep with me?" She looked up to Regina with raised eyebrows waiting for her conformation. Regina was taken aback by her boldness and could only turn away and let out a light chuckle. "I'll take your lack of an answer as a yes. And you see, Miss, my standards are just not set that low."

That was enough to wipe the smile clean off Regina's lips. She was more than offended by the woman insinuating that she was somehow below her standard. "Do you know who I am?" Regina asked trying not to come off as 'cocky' or a 'diva', but she really wanted to know if this woman was aware of who she was talking to.

"I'm assuming your name is Regina Mills, since that's the name you introduced yourself by." The woman shugged not at all interested in the conversation.

Regina wanted to laugh again, surely this woman knew who she was. All she had to do was turn on the television or log onto a social network. Her name was everywhere, she was the next up in coming actress, how could she not know? "I'm a celebrity, I'm famous." Regina said exasperated.

"Yea, celebrities usually are famous." She muttered in a witty response. "But, if that's the only adjective and noun you can use to define who you are you might want to reevaluate some things." She said before marking her page and closing her book, finally deciding that she wasn't going to get any more reading done with her new guest.

Regina opened her mouth only to close it slowly. Harsh words were threatening to spill out, but she kept them in, still having that small piece of hope that she would be able to bed this woman tonight. "Okay... So, why don't you want to sleep with me?"

"So you finally admit your true intentions?" She quipped.

"Well?" Regina raised both her eyebrows as she ignored the other woman's question.

"You haven't even asked me my name yet." She pointed out. "So let's see, I let you buy me a drink like you initially wanted to. One drink turns into two, which turns into three, then four, five and however many. We go back to... my place? And you still don't know my name, because the less know the better, right?" Emma asked and then continued on before Regina could answer. "Right. So, my place, so that you can sneak out before I wake up for me to never hear from you again... Hm, I'll pass. As I've stated before, my standards are simply not _that _low."

This woman had plenty to say for someone who knew nothing about Regina at all. But Regina still held her head high. "Fine. What is your name?"

The woman laughed and shook her head. "I will not tell you, because you don't really care to know." She smiled. "You're only asking because I said something about it."

"Then why mention it, if you didn't have any intention on telling me... Besides I'm kind of interested now." Regina said tilting her head to the side.

"If you really want to know, at this point, you'll have to figure it out yourself."

There was a moment of silence, before Regina decided that she was completely done with pursuing this woman... except she wasn't. Never in all her years had anyone ever turned her down, especially after she had become famous. People usually threw themselves at her. Did this woman not know she could have anyone she wanted? "Okay... I have a proposition for you."

The woman let her eyes roam around the bar for a moment before staring back at Regina. "Does that proposition include you leaving any time soon?"

Regina chuckled and shook her head. "No, well not unless you cooperate. If you let me buy you a drink, all I ask for in return is your name."

"No... not a good enough proposition. There's nothing in it for me." Regina could tell that the woman really didn't want to be bothered with her by the way she kept averting her eyes.

"And, you didn't let me finish... and I'll leave you alone." Regina said finally.

The woman seemed to think everything over before she finally nodded her head in one curt motion. "As long as you leave me be, I'm in."

Regina hated the smile that spread across her face as she flagged one of the bartenders down, she hated how giddy she felt for buying this lady a drink and getting nothing in return. She really didn't know why she was bothering at this point. "Can I have the most expensive drink on the menu for my friend here." Regina motioned to the woman beside her, when the bartender looked at the blonde, she furrowed her eyebrows and rushed to speak.

"But, Ms-"

The woman quickly waved her hand to halt the girl, and she showed a genuine smile. "It's okay Farah, I'll have an Apple Martini. You know how I like it, and put it on Ms. Mill's bill." The bartender nodded and went off to make the drink, leaving a baffled Regina sitting at the bar.

"How did you know that bartender?" Regina asked eyeing her with slightly narrow eyes.

"When you're here as often as I am, you get to know people... They get to know you." She shrugged.

"Oh..." Regina let her gaze roam over the length of the woman's sitting body, from her head to her toe, she had to admit this woman had emaculate style. But her overcoat, was what Regina loved the most. It was gray, and it hugged her body, decorated with buttons instead of a zipper and it had a belt around her midsection. It was one of the things that attracted her attention in the first place. "Where did you get this coat from?"

"What a random question..."

"Well?" Regina asked expectantly.

"Emma." The woman replied and Regina was sure she'd never heard of that store before.

"I'm not familiar with that one. Is that the little boutique on 5th street, the one near the subway station?"

"No, that's my name. I'm only holding up my end of your proposition. It wasn't written in the rules that we would be carrying out a conversation... So there, you have my name, you may leave." Emma flashed a tight lipped smile and turned to face forward, leaving a slightly aloof yet angry Regina to stare at the side of her face, not exactly sure of how she felt about being openly dismissed.

"Wait, that's all I get? _Just _Emma? What about a surename? You can't send me on my way with such little information." Emma simply cracked her book back open and began to read once again, she would not put up with temper tantrums. Regina wanted to rip her hair right out of her head, she'd never met someone so frustrating. "Fine, enjoy your drink _Emma_." Regina stood with her head held high, turning on her heels and storming away. She made it as far as two steps before she turned on her heels and headed right back towards the bar. "And for the record, I can have anyone in here."

"Well, you should probably go to one of the many others who are swooning over you, because I, obviously, am not." Emma retorted with her nose in her book.

"I chose you, though." Regina spat before turning to leave again, and this time she made it as far as five steps before she realized that her last retort wasn't a good enough answer. She didn't sound like she was leaving with the upper hand. So she turned right back around and approached her once more. "I didn't mean to say that. What I meant was, there are people lining up to sleep with me."

Emma looked up once more from her book and stared at Regina through green, expressionless, eyes and nodded. "Okay, I believe you." And she did believe Regina, there were probably tons of people waiting to get in bed with her, however, Emma was not one of them.

Regina turned to storm off again, this time making it a record of six steps away before she realized that she wasn't at all happy with the way things had just went, and she wanted answers. "Why wouldn't someone like you want to sleep with someone like me?"

"Someone like me, huh? How charming." Emma only shrugged her shoulders, never looking away from her book, but briefly wandered why Regina was getting so riled up over something so silly. "Because unlike you, Ms. Mills, a girl like me has self values... Now I do believe you were leaving?"

Regina didn't know what was more infuriating, Emma's actual response or her lack of acknowledgement through eye contact. "I do have self value, and for the record _Emma,_ this is your loss, not mine."

"Not likely, but tell yourself whatever you need to." Emma said absentmindedly as she continued to read, and this time when Regina stormed off she actually made it back to her table, thus breaking her six step record.

She fell ungracefully into the chair across from her friends who jumped apart with her presence. They both sat awkwardly and were a little fidgety as well, but Regina was too distracted with staring daggers across the room at a certain someone sitting at the bar.

"Whew, you scared us." David laughed nervously and Regina pried her eyes away from Emma for just a moment to flash him weird look before turning back to Emma.

"Yea... what took you so long anyway?" Kathryn quipped.

"I..." Regina watched as Emma stood from her seat and smiled, waving at all the bartenders, before she collected her things. She watched as the woman swiped a few golden strands behind her ear before tucking her book under her arm and turning to leave. Regina felt her shoulders drop and a pout form on her lips, all on their own accord, as Emma left. "Got distracted." She mumbled.

"Oh, ok-"

Regina whipped her head around to stare at her friends with the most unimpressed expression. "So that's it, you're not going to ask me what happened?" She deadpanned before David even had a chance to finish his sentence. She had just gotten dismissed by Emma, there was no way her friends didn't care to carry out a conversation with her either.

Kathryn leaned forward on the table, balancing herself on her forearms. "So what happened with the blonde?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"How did you know?"

"Regina don't think I didn't take notice to your absence. You were gone for a really long time. The Champagne made it here way before you did." She pointed to the two half drinken bottles. "And don't think I didn't see you sitting at the bar talking with her. I thought for sure you were going to ditch us to take her home."

Regina shrugged one shoulder and looked away. "Well, I was planning to."

"But what happened?" David said before he took a sip from his glass.

"David... She's... she's _different_..." She cocked her head to the side and reached across the table to steal Kathryn's glass. The blonde rolled her eyes, used to sharing everything with Regina.

"So... I'm guessing she shot you down?"

"With a rifle." She said taking another sip, and swirling the liquid around in her mouth. "This is really tastey."

"It's good right?" David agreed.

Kathryn shook her head and blinked a few times. "Wait, so you're telling me that someone turned you down and you accepted it... just like that?" Kathryn eyed her friend curiously, she knew Regina better than that.

"Well... I wouldn't say that."

"So what happened?"

"Nothing mentionable... I just don't think she was worth my time after all. She obviously doesn't know what a good thing is, even if it's placed right in front of her." Regina shrugged and Kathryn looked her over.

"You're going to look for her aren't you?"

"What? No." Regina denied.

"Yes you are, you'll come back to this lounge and sit at that bar, every day if you have to, and you won't give up until you see her again."

"I will do no such thing." Regina was offended by the implacation that she was desperate enough to come back everyday in search of a woman that held no interest in her. Emma was not _that _appealing, and frankly she had been quite rude and lacked manners, Regina was thoroughly unimpressed with her if she was being honest. "She's not worth it."

David shrugged and Kathryn stared at her friend for a moment more before she finally let it go. "Yea, well you've never been one to see much worth in... people. So, I can see that." Kathryn tilted her head from left to right before snatching back her drink. "Get your own."

Regina rolled her eyes and sat quietly listening to her friends talk animatedly about their perspective movie sets and cast mates, but somewhere along the way their voices faded to the very back of her mind and she found herself staring back at the bar at the seat that Emma, herself, had occupied. She couldn't help but notice how dull the atmosphere seemed all of a sudden.


	2. Chapter 2

"So what do you think?"

Regina pried her eyes from the script and gave a once over to her manager. Mary Margret seemed to be overjoyed about the new movie offer. She insisted that this was it. This would be Regina's big break, the Oscar winner. This movie would be enough to pull her out of the B-List and straight on to the A-List. But there was one thing... "I don't like it." She shrugged and folded the papers back to their original form. She placed the packet on the coffee table that sat between the two and stood up. "Would you like a coffee or tea?" She quipped.

Mary didn't say a word. She simply sat there with her mouth agape, staring at the actress disbelievingly. "What do you mean you don't like it? I worked hard to get you this audition... As the leading lady might I add! This could be your big break!"

But Regina was having none of it. She continued to walk to her kitchen and with a shrug of her shoulders she said "I've seen better scripts than that. I'd like a more serious role, one where I'm not cast as an "Evil Queen" and the step mother of Snow White." She hastily turned on the stove and set her tea kettle atop of it. "I mean, she isn't even a relevant Princess." She adds as she takes two mugs down from the cabinet.

"Regina, this is a serious role... Kind of."

The brunette scoffed at her manager. "Get me a role where my target audience is actually human beings over the age of five and I may consider it."

"But who doesn't love a great fairytale?" Mary had made her way into her client's kitchen without Regina even noticing. "And even better, who doesn't love a good villain?"

"Again, I'd like a script suited more towards a mature audience." Regina said with finality, and Mary knew that she wasn't going to get anywhere with this script. So she bit her tongue and nodded silently.

"Fine... But you need to start heading to more auditions. You haven't been on anything big since The Plagiarist and that was a year ago."

Regina ground her teeth as she tried to focus more on the high pitched screech coming from her tea kettle rather than the hounding coming from her manager. "I've had guest appearances on hit shows since then."

"Nothing that will advance your career. The only thing these guest appearances are doing is putting food on your table and money in your pockets, neither of which are a bad thing, but we don't have careers to be stagnant. We have them so that we can progress, life-"

"Yes, yes I know life is all about moving forward." Regina flailed her arms as she turned around in an over dramatic display of annoyance. "I'm well aware, and I will audition more as soon as you bring me more worthy leading roles to audition for... Is there anything else you would like to add?" She did a small pivot and removed the kettle from the stove, feeling too agitated to listen to the noise anymore.

"Just one last thing..." Regina could hear Mary walk back into her living room and rummage through her purse. She poured two cups of green tea as she briefly thought of how much time she had left before Kathryn would show.

"This." Regina heard something light hit the island top and she turned around to be met with a stern look from her manager. She peered down at the object on the island and saw that it was a magazine, People Magazine and on the front cover was Regina and another woman. It was titled: _Hollywood's Notorious Playgirl Strikes Again._

The actress wanted to laugh, she couldn't wait to read the article they wrote on her and the woman, she admittedly could not remember the name of. But by the looks of it, she was making quite the name for herself.

"Wipe the smirk off of your face, it's not something to be proud of." Regina shrugged and brought her mug to her lips just to hide an even bigger smile. It was amusing to her. "Do you even have anything to say for yourself?"

Regina paused for a moment before sliding Mary her cup. "Do you want honey or anything?" She feigned innocence.

It made Mary Margret just that much more irritated with her client. "Listen this is why I can't book any auditions for the roles that you want." Mary jabbed her index finger into the magazine. "No one wants an actress with a notorious background, it's not audience appealing. If you want more serious acts then you need to be more serious and get your act together when it comes to things like this." Regina didn't say anything she merely wore a slight frown as she listened silently. "Listen, Regina, you're a great actress and a successful one so far, don't let things like this overshadow your great talents. I don't want to sound too preachy but just... Be mindful that the whole world is watching you and believe it or not some malleable teenage girl is looking up to right now. Try to be a positive influence."

Regina let that sink in before she finally rolled her eyes. "Someone's on their high horse today." She muttered before she took another sip of tea.

"Regina!" Mary whined. "Come on you know what I'm saying is the truth."

"Alright, fine..." She sat her cup down and inhaled sharply. "Alright, I'll be mindful of the easy to influence children. Sheesh."

That was enough for Mary Margret and so she nodded her head and smiled. "We're going to have to do damage control you know." She said before she sipped her tea.

"What are talking? Donation to charity, helping an old lady across the street?"

"No that's too easy, considering that this is your third cover with a different woman each time you need something a little more... Hands on."

Regina arched a perfectly manicured eyebrow not liking the tone in her manager's voice. "What do you mean hands on?"

"I booked you to volunteer at the after school program at The Brearly School next week." She smiled brightly and Regina looked at her in horror.

"You what?"

"It'll be great for your image. Photographers will be there, next week is a special week its close to Thanksgiving so the after school program does a bunch of activities with the kids like games and little lessons about being thankful and yada, yada."

"But you didn't even get my permission to book me for it."

"That's the good thing about being your manager. Sometimes I have to make executive decisions that will aid in the advancement of your career and right now it is my job, along with your publicist to fix this image of yours."

"I'm not going. Call them and tell them I'm not showing."

"Oh but you are." Mary said matter or factly. "Brearly is a private school and a wealthy one at that, not that you'll be getting paid, but it has many big name investors and they've already been notified of you volunteering. You can't back out... Trust me, you don't want to."

"I'm not doing it."

Mary sighed and massaged her temples. "I swear you're going to force me into early retirement." She shook her head and centered herself. "I'm telling you, this is a great thing in disguise just trust that." She looked Regina straight in the eyes to try to convince her but her client looked less than happy.

She decided that she had done enough convincing and Regina would, no matter how much she protested, show up to the school.

"I'll text you all of the details in the morning..." She took one last sip of her tea. "You hate me now, but you'll thank me later. Just trust me."

Regina let out a grunt and said nothing as she watched her manger leave.

XXXXXXXX

"You couldn't have shown up 30 minutes earlier?" Regina whined as they sat in the back of Kathryn's Bently.

The blonde was only half paying attention to her best friend as she typed away on her phone. "I'm sorry, rehearsals ran later than I thought they would." She half heartedly offers.

Regina furrowed her eyebrows. "Who are you even talking to? You haven't taken your eyes off of that phone since you picked me up."

Kathryn glanced up at her friend for a moment before hitting the lock button on her phone. "No one... Now what were you saying about volunteering at Brearly? Isn't that like a private school or something?"

Regina easily dismissed her own questions once she was reminded of the stresses that filled her life. "Yes, and Mary Margret volunteered me to be there all of next week for their after school program. Something about Thanksgiving being close."

Kathryn smiled widely. "That's actually pretty cute, I think it's called the annual Thanksgiving fair, it's this really big event they do every year you know. George Clooney, actually volunteered a couple of years ago and there are articles of Leonardo Dicaprio and Jennifer Garner volunteering last year. This could be great for you... What's the problem again?" The blonde asked, clearly a bit confused as to why Regina was so upset with her manager.

The brunette could only pout knowing that she didn't have the support of her best friend. "Never mind."

Before Kathryn could even respond her phone vibrated in her lap and she was back to texting again.

Regina slumped a little further in her seat and watched as the many buildings passed by. She wondered if this week of volunteering could really be a good thing. It was only for one week after all, and many A-List celebrities before her had done it. There was virtually nothing to lose and even if she didn't gain that much publicity from it, her conscience would be clear.

She sighed and let her eyes roam to Kathryn. There was a small smile on her face and Regina could probably guess that it was David that she was talking to. She rolled her eyes. She couldn't understand why they pretended to not like each other when it was so obvious. Everything they did. The not so subtle glances, the shy smiles, the texting and calling each other all the time when they weren't around one another, the-

"Hey, David is going to meet us at Cassie's is that okay?" Kathryn asked off handedly.

-The inviting David out to girl's night. "Yea, sure that's fine." Regina said casually. Kathryn's smile grew just a tad wider as she stared at her screen and typed away. Regina shook her head. Obvious.

The rest of the ride was spent mostly in silence. The ride to _Cassie's_ wasn't too long to begin with and Regina was thankful for that. It had been five days since she had last been to the bar with her two best friends and it seemed that similar circumstances would ensue.

When they finally arrived Regina noticed two things. One was that David was standing outside in the cold and the other thing was that they arrived too early. Cassie's wasn't even open yet, which was why David was standing outside in the cold.

"Hey guys!" He waved rather cutely towards them as they stepped out of the car. Once they were both outside, the driver drove off and they made their way over to their friend.

"David, it's freezing out. Why aren't you inside?" Kathryn was the first to approach him and give him a hug. She stepped to the side for Regina to greet him in the same manner.

"Doesn't open for another 20 minutes, and you said you guys were close so I just thought I'd tough it out until you guys got here and we could just wait at the coffee shop across the street until the lounge opens."

Kathryn's blue eyes gleamed and she glanced to Regina for her approval.

The brunette shrugged before she shook her head. "I'll wait over here. You guys go to the coffee shop." She said wanting to have a little bit of time alone and also wanting to give her friends a bit of time for just the two of them.

"Are you sure?" David asked.

Regina flashed them both a tight lipped smile and she gave a curt nod. "Go" she shoed them away with her hands and they didn't put up much of a protest. They simply linked arms and began speaking animatedly to each other as they walked away.

Once they were gone Regina realized just how awkward she looked with nothing to actively do or no one to talk to. She was just standing outside in the middle of the sidewalk on a particularly cold evening in Manhattan. Great.

She fiddled with her thumbs and rocked back and forth on her heels. She looked from left to right and saw that there weren't many bodies filling these New York streets and she could probably attribute that to the area she was in, not that it was a bad area just less populated, and the low temperature.

She sighed before she turned to the side and stood there. She was contemplating on just going to the coffee shop with her friends to get out of the cold and she was just about to leave when movement inside of the lounge caught her attention. Of course the main staff was in there already, they had to set up for the evening, but that wasn't what caught her eye. It was a flash of white closely followed by a flash of blonde that caught her attention.

Could it be? It couldn't be...

Regina stepped closer to the window just to be sure.

And there she was, bright blonde hair with light waves cascaded over her shoulders. Though the windows were tinted, Regina could see well enough to know that, that was definitely Emma in there. She almost wanted to step closer and put her face to the glass in order to get a better look. But that would make her look absolutely ridiculous. She was not some obsessed little girl pining over a woman that probably never even made the headlines of a small town newspaper… But her interest got the better of her and she stepped up to the window cupping her hands on both sides of her face peering into the lounge against her better judgement.

She was sitting at the bar again staring downward, the same position that Regina had initially spotted the woman in during their first encounter. Off to the side of her Regina could see a piece of paper with a pen that lay across it and she couldn't help the eye roll that followed. Not only was this woman able to get into Cassie's before it opened and have the lounge all to herself, but she was not taking advantage of it how she should've been.

Regina worried her bottom lip as she stared at the other woman completely forgetting about the world around her and quickly entering her own little world. What was she reading and writing about anyway? Regina hadn't really paid the book any attention during their first encounter. Whatever it was had to be pretty important to Emma if she insisted on getting dressed up and going out to Cassie's of all places just to read.

Speaking of getting all dressed up, she was wearing another stylish overcoat. This one was white with gold accents. It was formfitting and lacked a belt like the prior one she was wearing. Regina let her eyes rake over the length of the coat. It looked expensive, much like the last one. These coats must be Emma's thing, she thought. There was always a little trademark piece that you had to have in your closet, something that made your wardrobe so… you, and for Emma it had to be these overcoats. Regina wondered again where Emma got them from. They just looked so authentic. She got lost in her thoughts, completely forgetting that what she was doing was completely unorthodox.

Right as Regina was studying the other woman she felt a tingling sensation in her nose. Before she could move her face away from the glass a sneeze came toppling out of her mouth causing Regina to bang her forehead up against the glass. It was not a hard bang but it produced a thump loud enough for Emma to be torn away from her own musing and look in the opposite direction. Regina blinked a few times, unable to move from the shock of being so clumsy. She could see through the tinted windows how Emma's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and her thin lips parted slightly.

Run. That was the first thought that crossed Regina's mind. How embarrassing was it for her to get caught leering in such a creepy way? She mentally berated herself before swiftly turning and walking away. She made it as far as two steps before she collided with a thin stature and went toppling backwards, landing on her butt. "Ouch." Regina grimaced. This day could not possibly get any worse how was she up two clumsy and embarrassing accidents in one day?

"Oh my goodness, I'm terribly sorry Miss…" Regina looked up when she heard the voice of the other person. It was a woman. She was wearing a white blazer with a navy blue flannel shirt, khaki pants and dark brown riding boots. Her reddish hair was pulled back neatly into a bun and Regina couldn't help but think she looked very much like an equestrian.

The other woman dusted off her pants as she quickly regained her stance and finally looked down at Regina offering her a hand.

Regina looked up dumbstruck for a moment into piercing blue eyes and hesitated a moment too long. The other woman had noticed how familiar the brunette looked and retracted her hand. "Oh my…" she said in awe. "You're Regina Mills, the one from that movie!" Regina smirked as she picked herself up off the ground and dusted herself off. She loved when she got recognized outside of work, most times, it showed the effort and hard work she put into her growing career.

"Yea, that's me. I was in The Plagiarist." She smiled a half smile.

"Yea! That's it, that's the movie!" She beamed, right before her eyes went wide and a shocked expression filled her features. "Oh my, I'm so sorry for bumping into you I swear I didn't mean to. Are you alright?"

Regina laughed it off and waved her hand in a dismissive matter. "I'm quite alright actually."

The woman sighed in relief and visibly dropped her shoulders. "Okay good." She smiled sweetly at Regina and the brunette returned the sentiment. "W-would you… I mean do you mind if I got a picture with you? I want to send it to my sister. She absolutely adores you."

"Oh yea, no problem." Regina agreed. She watched as the woman took her phone from the inside of her blazer pocket. The actress had momentarily forgotten about the whole reason as to why they even ran into to each other, but she was reminded when she heard the sound of the doors to _Cassie's_ being opened not too far behind her. Emma. Regina whipped around so fast, and of course the blonde was walking their way.

The brunette had completely forgotten about that embarrassing little encounter. "Great." She heard the red head say when she saw the blonde. "I'm sorry to bother you Miss, but do you think that you could take a picture of the two of us?" She asked.

Regina could feel all the blood leaving her body she was probably as pale as snow. But she would blame that on the cold not the fact that Emma was now standing in front of her sporting a less than impressed expression directed towards her. "Uh… Sure." She hesitantly took the other woman's phone and pointed in their direction.

The red head wrapped one arm around Regina's neck and Regina instinctively wrapped her around the other woman's waist. It felt a bit awkward seeing as how the woman was a bit shorter than Regina so she had to slightly lean down a little in order for her not to stand on her tippy toes.

Emma snapped a few shots before she stepped forward and gave the phone back to the lady. "Thank you!" She beamed. "Well I have to get going." She threw a thumb over her shoulder. "It was so nice to meet you Regina."

"Nice meeting you too…?"

"Oh, how rude am I? Belle, my name is Belle."

"Like Beauty and the Beast." Regina stated the similarity.

"Yea." She nodded. "Exactly like Beauty and the Beast." She beamed.

"Well it was a pleasure meeting you Belle." Regina smiled.

"Likewise." Belle said before she turned and smiled at Emma and walked away.

Emma waited until the woman was out of ear shot before she stepped a little closer to Regina. "Were you spying on me just a few minutes ago?" Regina initially thought the woman would be angry but she was a little taken aback when Emma just seemed to be annoyed.

Regina rolled her eyes out of pure habit. "Don't flatter yourself. I was planning on coming here to unwind from a long week of stress, it just so happened that I showed up before the open time. I saw someone sitting at the bar and I thought they were letting people in already. So I merely stepped closer to get a better look." It was most definitely a lie, but she was in no position to tell Emma the truth. That would make her look like an absolute fool.

Emma folded one flap of her coat over the other as a strong gust of wind randomly made its presence known. "Oh, well doors don't open until-"

"7:00 p.m. I know it's my favorite lounge." Regina stated.

"Well if you knew then why'd you show up early? It's freezing outside, and not only that but the sun sets around this time, not that this is a particularly dangerous area but you do know that no sun means an even cooler temperature right?"

Regina smacked her teeth and stuffed her glove covered hands into her coat pockets. "Yes _mom_ I'm well aware." She bit out sarcastically.

Emma looked at her for a short moment more before she shook her head and turned on her heels. "Doors don't open for another 15 minutes, enjoy the cold."

"Wait, what? You're just going to leave me out here in this harsh winter?" Regina demanded. "You obviously have some sort of special privilege here why can't I go in with you?"

"Because Ms. Mills, that would mean that you take some sort of precedence over all of the other customers that visit this place and I'm sure that would be bad for business." Emma threw over her shoulder before disappearing inside of the establishment.

Regina let out a visible cloud of air that lingered in front of her before it disappeared. How rude was that? Some nerve Emma had… and still Regina was going to stand in the cold and wait for those doors to open so she could march right in there and give Emma a piece of her mind. She looked to her left and her right taking notice to how there were no benches for her to sit on. So she dropped her shoulder and walked over to the wall of the building. She did a quick once over to make sure it was clean enough and let her back rest against it. It really had been a long week and she really did need to unwind.

She shivered as she felt another gust of wind brush past her body. Under normal circumstances she'd never take this treatment. She was much too good for this. But she wasn't going to let anyone run her away from her safe haven. Besides who exactly was Emma anyway? Regina had never seen her before the other night and she'd been going to Cassie's well over a year now.

"You're really going to stand out here in the cold?" Regina was caught a little off guard and let out a small gasp when she heard Emma's voice.

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and took a glance at her wrist. "According to my watch I have approximately 11 minutes left. That's nothing." She said matter of factly, and truth be told she was freezing and 11 more minutes sounded like hell. But she was nothing if not stubborn and set in her ways she could hold out until opening.

Regina could see Emma shaking her head from the corner of her eye and she probably rolled her eyes too. "I thought you would leave if you knew that you would have to wait."

"I'm the one that showed up early, I obviously, anticipated a wait time." She lied, Regina never meant to show up early. She just timed everything wrong, well technically Kathryn timed everything wrong, but Emma didn't need to know that.

The blonde let out a sigh and rubbed her forehead in frustration. She stared at Regina a few moments more before she begrudgingly motioned for her to step inside the lounge. "I may not like you-"

"You barely even know me." Regina protested.

"I know enough." Emma kept on without missing a beat. "But I'm not cruel. You can come in."

Regina let out a scoff and folded her arms in a true diva fashion. "So first you insult me and then you invite me in? Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that is how it's supposed to work."

Emma was clearly unamused. "Look, lady are you coming in or not? It's cold out and this place is opening soon. I was trying to show you a little decency but you don't appreciate that. I won't ask you again. If you're coming now's your chance." Emma said before she walked back into the bar without a second glance.

It didn't take the brunette long before she was scurrying to get inside before the door closed all the way. It was much more warm and cozy in comparison to the New York streets outside. She took off her gloves and shoved them in her coat pocket as she made her way to the bar. There were servers and hosts and hostesses fixing up tables and making the place look presentable for the evening guests. The bartenders were behind the bar laughing and joking with one another. Everyone was just having a little a fun before opening except for Emma. She didn't talk to anyone. She sat at the bar looking in her book and scribbling on her piece of paper.

"You're focused." Regina commented wryly before she hopped up on the stool next to her.

"Or at least I'm trying to be." She said without taking her eyes off of her book. Pretty much the same way she'd been the very first night the two had met.

"So how'd you get in here before the open time anyway?" Regina had planned on telling Emma off about leaving her out in the cold, but she had came back to get her so she figured she could try another approach. "Do you work here or something?"

"Or something." Emma repeated.

"Does someone you know work here and you just got lucky by knowing them?"

"Hey, Josh," Emma called one of the bartenders over, ignoring Regina's questions. "How much longer until the doors open?"

"5 minutes Ms. Swan." He answered before he gave a curt smile.

"So Emma Swan?" Regina commented accusingly and the blonde dragged her hand down her face.

"Did you have to say my last name?"

The man looked confused before Emma dismissed him and focused on Regina. "Yes, Swan is my last name. Now you know everything you need to know about me. Please, the lounge is empty and you have first pick of any table or section you'd like tonight, so make your choice and let me get back to my studies. Thank you." Emma didn't sound rude, but it was rude of her to say anyway.

"You're welcome." She answered back without moving a muscle.

Emma didn't pick her gaze up from her paper. "This is the part where you leave... Like to go sit at one of the tables."

Regina regarded her thoughtfully. She's sure she could bed this woman with a little more persistence. "No, that's a different part. See this is the part when you relax a little, put down your pen and get to know me a little better."

The blonde scoffed and shook her head. "Don't, you already know that I'm not interested? I'm amazed that I even have to say that after the last time. I would think..." Emma shook her head and let that sentence linger, not bothering to finish it.

"Then why'd you let me in here?" Regina purred.

"Because, unlike you I know how to commit acts out of the kindness of my heart. I didn't let you in here because I like you or because I want something from you. I definitely do not. I let you in because it's cold outside, I could, and quite frankly Ms. Mills you looked rather pathetic peering in through the windows at me like a lost puppy." She shrugged.

Somehow, Emma's ability to be so rude and stubborn managed to anger Regina and turn her on at the same time. "You're insufferable, and I wasn't peering at you through the window."

"You're much too pretty to lie." Emma mocked.

Regina smirked and she placed her head in her hand. "So you think I'm attractive?"

Emma glanced up and flashed an unamused look at the other woman. "And you call me insufferable."

"Because you are." Regina shrugged and turned to face forward instead of facing the blonde, who rarely spared Regina a glance. The actress wondered if she could get a drink if the bar wasn't open yet. But the bartenders were off to the side chatting amongst each other, she didn't feel like waving them down.

"What are you reading and writing about?" Regina asked casually as she propped herself up on her elbows.

"Why do you care?"

Regina was silent for a moment. "You're right..." She felt a little perturbed nothing she was doing or saying was working with this woman and she'd never experienced that before. A woman could shoot her down once but she always had them the second time around, but Emma seemed to be different. Almost as if she really wasn't interested. It was unsettling simply for the fact that it made Regina want her even more.

The brunette cleared her throat. "How about we start over?"

Emma cut her eyes at her before deciding to fully face Regina. "What are you talking about?" The blonde asked confused.

Regina didn't bother to answer her question, or at least not directly. "Hi I'm Regina Mills..." She held out her hand for the blonde to shake. "I am one of Hollywood's up and rising actresses, this is my favorite lounge, and I do not want to sleep with you." Regina still held her hand out awkwardly and noticed how Emma made no attempt at taking it. "Now you shake my hand and tell me about yourself." Regina muttered.

The blonde furrowed her eyebrows before she shook her head and took Regina's hand. "My name is Emma, and I'm glad you don't want to sleep with me." She stated before turning back to her work.

Regina could only stare at the other woman and shake her head at her own futile attempts. Emma was an enigma and Regina just didn't know which way was up with her. But she did know that her interest had been piqued not only this night but the first night she encountered the blonde as well. There was just something about the blonde that called out to her.

But, she wouldn't wrack her brain trying to figure out what it was exactly about this woman that she wanted so very badly, at least not tonight anyway. Tonight, was not devoted to Emma or to prowl for any other woman for that case. Regina's night was to be spent at her favorite lounge with her best friends to take her mind off of the stresses of work, and that's what she intended to do.

She stood from her place at the bar after the lounge had officially opened and people began to trickle in. "We'll have to finish our conversation the next time we see each other." Regina glanced to the door when she saw the two familiar figures walk into the building. "Work on your hospitality while I'm gone." She added.

Emma actually smiled at that. It was too small of a smile for Regina to notice, but it was still there. The blonde thought that Regina could be funny when she wasn't being so abrasive.

"Bye, Emma..." And with that she was gone. She left before Emma could respond, but the blonde didn't bother to she simply kept at her studies not even chancing a glance at the retreating figure.


	3. Chapter 3

Regina could feel a headache coming on and she hadn't even been at Brearly for more than an hour yet. On top of that, the kids hadn't shown up either. It was about thirty minutes before they would come and she was completely over volunteering. She'd been hit with more curve balls since the moment she stepped through those double doors in the gymnasium than she had been in her entire life. She was very under informed as far as the tasks she would have to carry out when she was at the school.

The first thing that she didn't like was the actual manual labor that she had to do. Mr. Gold, the point of contact and the volunteer director, had to explain to her that the Thanksgiving Fair was going to be on the last day of the school week, Friday. The four days that precede it would be spent in preparation for the final day. Mary Margret neglected to tell her that.

The second thing was that she had to be assigned a group of children that she would be working with. It's not that Regina didn't like children... Okay, she didn't really care for them. They didn't listen, they were loud and they always made messes. Regina most certainly was not up to working with them for five days.

The third thing was that she was assigned an age group of five year olds. Kindergarteners. If she was going to be forced to work with children then she was at least hoping to get the more competent end of the spectrum, maybe the teens somewhere around the ages of 15 or 16. But when she tried to renegotiate for a different pick, she was denied and sent to help prepare the snacks with the other volunteers.

"You're Regina Mills?" A man with a scruffy beard asked. He was there with gloves on his hand as he sliced and assorted different fruits.

Regina spared him a glance from the side and nodded. "That's me." She said through a sigh. She looked around at the table and it seemed pretty occupied. There was nothing she could really do. So she just stood there awkwardly.

"Yea..." He smiled as he looked from what he was doing to the woman beside him. "I saw you on Criminal Minds once. That's pretty impressive."

She offered a slight smile. "Thanks."

"Oh, my name is Robin by the way." He extended his glove clad hand and then quickly realized it was wet from the fruit and most likely unsanitary to shake hands while handling food. "Sorry." He pulled his hand away hesitantly.

"It's fine." She dismissed the action.

"You know, my wife is a really big fan of yours. She'll be at the fair on Friday, you wouldn't mind signing something for her would you? It would mean a lot." He smiled in the most charming way.

Regina shrugged not seeing a problem with that, she loved her fans. "I wouldn't mind it at all actually."

Robin nodded his head with the biggest smile. "Her name is Marian by the way."

Regina nodded not knowing exactly what to say after that. She felt so out of place. She was actually beginning to look forward for the kids to come, at least then she'd be actively doing something.

"So why did you decide to volunteer?" She heard Robin ask.

"Oh, um... I guess I just wanted to give back to the community is all." Lie, she was forced into doing this, but that wouldn't sound too pleasing coming out of her mouth , so a lie was all she had to work with. "You?" She asked, quickly shifting the attention from her back to him.

"My son goes to this school. His name is Roland and he loves it when me and his mom come out and do things like this with him. Marian and I both have very busy schedules with work, and we don't always get to spend as much time as we'd like to with him. So we try our best to fit in time where we can. Last year it was Marian who came out to volunteer, so this year is my year."

"Oh... How old is he?" Regina quipped. She was actually interested in the conversation but she had nothing else to do so, she didn't really have the option of being uninterested. Plus Robin seemed like a nice enough person.

"He's five actually... You have a group of five years old right?"

"Right... So Roland may actually end up with me?"

Robin smiled. "Not likely, he's always in my group. But I'll introduce you two when they come."

She didn't particularly care to meet Roland, but she couldn't just come right out and say that either. She simply settled for a tight lipped smile and a nod. "Okay, can't wait." That statement held very little enthusiasm.

"So what about you? Do you have any children?"

"Hm... Not that I know of."

Robin laughed in return and cleared his throat. "Do you want any?"

She hummed in response and looked to her left when she heard the gymnasium doors being pushed open. Time had passed by and the students had finally arrived. She scanned their faces taking notice to how excited they all looked, even the older children, as they took their seats in the bleachers. "I'm actually not sure that I do." She stated after seeing one of the smaller children in the front pick his nose.

Robin nodded and straightened his posture before he discarded his gloves. "Come on let's go line up." Regina looked confused for a moment but she noticed how all of the volunteers began to stand side by side in front of the student body. She took her place at the end beside Robin.

"Welcome to the 2015 Thanksgiving Fair preparation program." Mr. Gold started his spiel with much enthusiasm. "For everyone who has never attended this event before, here's how it works. You all will be separated by age groups. For every four of you there will be one volunteer." He motioned to the long line of volunteers that stood behind him.

"Once you are assigned your group your team will then discuss which booth you would like to hostages year. You may be as creative as you would like when coming up with your booth ideas. Once you have decided then preparation for Friday may begin. You'll have to make banners, booth decorations, props, and pick your set up location in the courtyard."

Regina had to hold back an eye roll when the children began to cheer. She was not looking forward to doing all of the work by herself.

"Oh, before I forget, please refrain from giving our volunteers a hard time. Not that I'm worried about anything like that, you all are a good bunch, but just in case." Mr. Gold smiled and glanced back to his line up.

"Alright everyone, let's break you off into your groups!"

XXXXXXX

Regina looked at the four children standing in front of her and dreaded the upcoming week. Not that they looked completely incompetent but they didn't look like they were going to be much help either.

"Okay, uh... So you're-?" Regina looked to the sky for an answer. She hadn't been paying the slightest bit of attention when they'd introduced themselves.

"I'm Peter!" The little boy beamed.

"Peter, yea." She's not sure why she was about to guess that his name was Andy of all names. "And you're Violet." She pointed to the little blonde haired girl. "And you're Lily." She pointed to the brunette. That was be easy enough.

Except. "No I'm Violet." The dark haired girl stamped her foot.

"And I'm Lily." The blonde one added softly.

Regina raised both of her eyebrows and shook her head. This was a lot harder than she thought. Combing her fingers through her hair she looked at the last little boy who didn't look nearly as excited or as lively as the other children. He looked more reserved, shy even. He had his little arms folded in front of him and his head pointed down.

The actress furrowed her eyebrows, she didn't have the slightest clue as to what this one's name was. But she didn't feel too bad considering that she's quite sure he never introduced himself to the group.

"Ahem." She cleared her throat in an attempt to get his attention, but the little boy didn't flinch. "And what's your name... Buddy?" She added awkwardly.

Still, nothing. She wanted to groan but she couldn't. She didn't want to discourage him anymore than he already was. But she figured if he was shy, then he wouldn't want to talk in front of the other kids. Or at least that seemed like a logical enough explanation. So Regina looked around at all the other groups and saw that they were working on their banners already and an idea struck her.

"You three" Lily, Peter and Violet all looked at her expecting eyes. "Go get some art supplies and a banner and start decorating it." That seemed to be the only command the kids needed, because they were quick to bounce away.

Regina was impressed, they could take orders without any back talk. Maybe this week wouldn't be all bad.

"Now... Back to you." She stepped a little closer to the small boy and he instinctively took a step back. "What's your name?"

For a moment she thought he wasn't going to answer, yet again. But after a short pause the little boy finally said, "my name is Henry."

"Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Well, Henry, would you like to help out with the banner?" Regina tried but little Henry shook his head vigorously. "Why not? It'll be fun." Another failed attempt. The boy was stubborn and Regina was growing rather impatient. Out of all of the kids they just had to give her the broken one.

"Now what do we do?" The three musketeers had made it back in no time and with them they dragged a long blank banner and many art supplies.

"Uh... Sit it down over there, and get creative." She shrugged and again the children obeyed without the slightest protest. Good. The actress then focused her attention back on the little boy standing in front of her.

Regina kneeled down in front of him and tried to get him to make eye contact, but he wouldn't. "What's wrong?" She asked and he shrugged. She really didn't have time for the guessing game. "Listen kid, I'll let you... I don't know-" the brunette looked around for something she could offer him in exchange for him telling her what was the matter, but she couldn't find anything appealing. "I don't know, I guess I'll give you whatever you want if you tell me what's wrong."

That got him to look up at her. Regina mentally patted herself on the back it looked like things were working in her favor. "Promise?" He asked quietly.

"Yea, sure just tell me what's wrong with you." She sighed.

He looked from side to side making sure none of the other kids were listening. He needed to be sure that what he was about to say was in complete confidence. So when he found no one that may be eavesdropping he looked back to Regina and motioned for her to come closer with his hand.

She obliged turning slightly so that the little boy could whisper in her ear. She was nearly expecting him to tell her something along the lines of "I'm a secret agent undercover" with how secretive he was being. But instead he carefully cupped her ear and whispered, ever so softly "I'm only four years old."

The actress couldn't help herself with how she pulled away and flashed a look of incredulity. "Seriously? That's it?" She deadpanned. This was ridiculous. She wasn't showing up tomorrow for this.

She watched as Henry nodded his head and his eyes fell back to the floor. Briefly, and only for a fleeting second, the melancholy look on his face tugged at her heartstrings. She figured she could play along but just this one time. "Okay, but why does that matter? You can still come do arts and crafts with us."

"Because they won't let me." He said in defeat. "They never let me do anything with them because I'm four... And they're five." He glanced up at the woman, but only for a moment.

"You mean these little brats?" Regina asked before catching herself. She winced as soon as the words left her lips, but was relieved when Henry actually giggled. "Or the teachers?"

"Those brats." He replied and Regina laughed, she actually laughed.

"You can't call them that." She said through a smile.

"But you said it." He retorted.

"Yea, but I'm a grown up so I'm allowed."

"Well I'm very impressionable at the age of four years old, so I can say something and get away with it... As long as I blame it on the adult who taught it to me." Punctuated with a mischievous grin. Regina wondered for a moment where he learned to speak so well so soon but quickly dismissed the thought.

"Are you threatening to tell on me?"

"No..." Henry shook his head. "I'm just saying."

The actress gave him a once over. "And you're really four? How are you even in this school? The age requirement is at least five."

He shrugged his shoulders in response. "I don't know, my mom did a bunch of paperwork and I took a test. It was easy and they let me come here... But I wish I hadn't."

"Because the other kids don't let you play with them?"

"Yea... And they're mean to me."

Her eyebrows furrowed out of curiosity. "What do they do?"

"Well besides not including me... Ever. They call me names like baby, short stacks, mouse..."

"You are pretty mouse like." Regina commented off handedly and that earned her a scowl from Henry. She laughed because it was more cute than it was intimidating. "Alright, alright." Her hands went up in mock surrender. "Well I'm the leader of the group which means I'm the biggest and baddest person there is, if any of these little jerks pick on you or fail to include you, you let me know, and I'll take care of it." Regina smirked and Henry nodded excitedly. "Okay, now let's get in there kiddo."

He took her hand after she stood and timidly followed closely behind her. He squeezed her knuckles so hard Regina almost snatched her hand away in pain. But the way he hid halfway behind her leg made her pity him instead. She would allow it just this once.

"You still owe me." He muttered right before they got to the group.

"Whatever you say kid." The actress stated as she caught sight of the atrocious artwork on their banner. She let out a sigh and shook her head. She was definitely not returning tomorrow.

It took a moment for Henry to let go of her hand and Regina never urged him to. Surprisingly, she just stood there until he decided that he was ready to let go, and when he did none of the children seemed to care that he'd finally joined them. Lily even handed him a tube of paint and said that he could draw beside her artwork.

Regina smiled when she saw that his cheeks flushed to a light shade of red. She had to admit, though she hated the idea of volunteering and the time here has been less than ideal, it wasn't so bad... This kids were kind of cute. They listened, which was her favorite part, and they seemed to be getting along fine.

"Regina?" The brunette turned at the sound of her name. "What are you doing here?"

"Belle?" Regina recalled the red head that she ran into from last week.

"Yea, you remembered." She flashed a dazzling smile as she stood in front of the actress.

"I'm volunteering for the Thanksgiving Fair."

"That's such a coincidence."

"And you?"

"I'm one of the equestrian teachers at this school. I was just heading home, but I wanted to come see how everything was going with the prepping for the fair."

"Pretty good, I guess." Regina broke eye contact momentarily to glance at their banner and Belle followed her line of sight.

"Oh, that's..." She tilted her head to the side as the four oblivious children carried on. "That's very... Abstract." She conceded and Regina smirked.

"Abstract? That's what came to your mind?"

"Well you know art is all subjective. Everyone takes away something different after they've seen it."

Regina shrugged. "I guess." They stood there facing one another and not knowing exactly what to do next, and Regina was over the awkward pauses she was experiencing lately. "I'd better... Help them out. They sure could use it."

"Okay." Belle offered.

Regina did a small wave and flashed a tight lipped smile. "Okay, bye now." Just as she was walking away she was halted by a firm hand that gripped her bicep. She turned back to Belle questioning her silently.

"I don't know if this is terribly out of place for me to ask." She struggled slightly, and Regina could see that she was terribly nervous. "But, will you- I mean would you mind." She took a deep breath and released her hold on the other woman.

"G- I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm so nervous all of a sudden. I just wasn't expecting to see you here of all places and yet here you are..."

"What are you trying to get at?" Regina asked unsure of what Belle was talking about.

She bit her bottom lip and clenched her fists. "Will you... Go out with me?"

Oh... A smirk spread across Regina's lips on its own accord as she eyed Belle from head to toe. She could easily admit that Belle wasn't her type in the slightest bit, but she could use a night of fun.

"I know just the place."

XXXXXXXXX

Regina glanced past Belle and spied on Emma suspiciously. the whole hour and half that they'd been sitting at the bar Emma had not even spared her a glance, and now the woman was packing up her things to leave. It was still so early in the night. Regina wouldn't stand for that. "I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me." She said to her date, and Belle flashed her a surprised look, partly because Regina had just cut her off in the middle of her sentence.

"Uh, okay." She said but Regina was already up and walking away.

"You can't just leave. You saw me sitting at the bar!" Regina said exasperated, she didn't know why her words were relevant but for some strange reason she'd made it up in her mind that Emma was supposed to care once she saw her sitting with someone else at the bar.

Emma merely rolled her eyes and walked away, but she couldn't escape so easily. Regina ran and caught up to her. "If you must know... I'm on a date." Regina said ready to witness the other woman's mortified a expression. She was sorely disappointed when one never came.

"You're actually taking someone out instead trying to get in their pants. Proud of you." She said nonchalantly. "And I didn't ask why you were here." She pointed out.

"You're lucky I left her to come over here and talk to you."

"I asked you to do no such thing. In fact I'm asking you to go back to her before she gets the wrong idea."

"Why would she get the wrong idea? You so obviously don't want anything to do with me."

"Well obviously." Emma said as she shuffled through the people with Regina in tow. "But with the way things are looking she might actually think it's you who's into me."

That was enough to stop Regina dead in her tracks. She had to pause and let those words sink in before she scurried to catch up with Emma again. "I'll have you know I find you annoying, rude and not to mention stubborn. It's definitely not me who is into you."

Emma threw a fake smile over her shoulder with a cute head tilt. "Oh how charming you are. I can clearly see I'm missing out on a lot." The blonde said sarcastically. By then they'd made it to the entrance of the lounge and Emma pushed the door open with Regina still following closely on her heels.

"Well you are!" Regina retorted lamely before folding her arms. She watched as the concierge rolled up in a 2015 Audi and got out.

"Ms. Swan." The concierge greeted as he stepped out of the car and held the door open for Emma.

"Thank you James. Here's something for the trouble." She smiled and placed a crisp fifty dollar bill in his hand.

"So you're just going to leave, knowing that I'm on a date with someone else."

"Please Regina, do go back to her." Emma said before swinging her car door open.

"Where are you going?" She had no right to ask, but they were far past being appropriate towards each other seeing as how their first conversation was all based on Regina trying to sleep with Emma and every conversation after that included Emma being rude in one way or the other.

"Not that it's any of your business or anything..." Emma said before she proceeded to get into her car.

"Yea, but... Humor me anyway." Regina wasn't sure why she was still trying with Emma at this point. She had a perfectly fine, perfectly willing woman sitting at the bar waiting for her to return... But she didn't want Belle. She wanted Emma.

Emma was the challenge.

Emma didn't want her.

"And if I do will you go back to your date?"

"You know, nothing is stopping you from just ignoring me and driving off... Unless you secretly want to be standing out here in the cold talking to me." Regina offered.

"And nothing is stopping you from leaving me alone." She pointed out.

The actress smirked and cocked her hip to the side. "You know for someone who is so put off by my company you sure as hell don't do a very good job of removing yourself from the situation."

The blonde thought on that and Regina was sure she had finally won when Emma didn't respond right away. A smirk spread across the brunette's lips as she was sure Emma would finally confess to at least finding her bearable.

"I have a date." Emma said narrowing her eyes at Regina. "A date that I've been looking forward to all day." Regina's mouth fell slightly agape in shock. Her shoulders visibly deflated upon hearing the news. "With a man... Figured I should add that, just so you know." Emma was being coy with her. She was teasing her.

"So y-you... Wait you're straight?" Emma simply shrugged one of her shoulders in response. "That's it, that's why you haven't slept with me yet."

Emma furrowed her eyebrows and quickly shook her head. "No. Straight or not straight, taken or not taken I haven't slept with you, nor will I ever, because I don't like you Regina."

"Again, Emma, you don't know me well enough to say that." She couldn't deny that she had become surprisingly agitated upon finding out that Emma was leaving to go on a date, but Regina had no right to be. They weren't together in the slightest, they were still practically strangers to one another... and Emma was supposedly straight? The actress couldn't be sure since she didn't really give Regina a straight answer when she asked.

"I could say the same to you. You don't know me well enough to know that you like me... Or better yet that you want to sleep with me."

"I don't have to know you to know that I want to sleep with you." Regina muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

"I said, I'm beginning to think that the feeling is mutual. I don't like you Emma." Regina huffed and folded her arms in a true diva fashion. She didn't like Emma. She knew that she didn't like Emma, but she also knew that she liked Emma. Regina was growing frustrated with her indecipherable thoughts when it came to the blonde. Every part of her screamed to just walk away and leave it but not one part of her listened.

Emma didn't offer anything else, not even a goodbye, before she slipped into her car and drove off. Regina watched the car until she couldn't see it anymore. Then she stood on the sidewalk for a little while after that. It wasn't until she began to shiver that she decided to make her way back into the lounge.

But when she got back to the bar, Belle was already gone.

**Hi everyone, I would just like to say thanks to all of you for reading my story and for all of the alerts! You guys are awesome for sticking with me, for those of you who actually stuck with me. (That publish date) anyways a guest mentioned Regina's attitude in this story, all I can comment is that there will be character development as the story continues. Also this is a Swan Queen fic, so don't be discouraged by the content in this chapter. And I think that's all! If anyone has any other questions for me, feel free to PM me or ask in review form. Til next time! **


	4. Chapter 4

**The reason why I haven't updated this fic is because I got kind of lost with it, but I wanted to keep it going. I'm just going to come right and say that I'm not completely happy with this chapter, and I'm real sorry about it. All mistakes are mine and thanks for the continued support guys.**

**P.s. Thanks to the reviewer who told me Brearly wasn't a school that accepted both genders, but for the story's sake let's pretend that Brearly is gender neutral in this world. I like the name, and I don't want to change it now. **

Sometimes, Regina prided herself in the fact that she had a remarkable way with people, obviously her fans adored her, but most times, as of late, she couldn't get a firm grip on pleasing anyone around her, women in particular. Not Emma, not Belle, not even Mary Margret of all people and she was, literally, one of the easiest people to please. So she wasn't exactly surprised to see that Belle had disappeared upon her return, and Regina, admittedly, didn't spend too much time searching for her either, Belle was more than likely long gone from the lounge so searching for her would have been rather pointless. What sense would have made to chase after a woman she wasn't interested in, in the slightest anyhow?

Besides, she would be leaving soon as well. There was really no other reason for her to stay. She'd went to Cassie's on a mission to make Emma squirm with jealousy, and since that backfired in her face and Emma was now gone she decided that she would leave too.

She only needed to gather the rest of her belongings that she left sitting at the bar after her hasty departure. Regina scanned the few empty seats and sought out her forgotten coat once she saw it.

The actress was just about to turn and leave when something very "out of place" seemed to catch her eye. Now, if this had been any other forgotten object Regina would have left it in its spot, but this was no normal thing. She fully turned her head to the side and made her way further down the bar, passing a line of oblivious guests. "Emma's Journal." She mumbled as she picked up the purple book. Regina had recognized it from all of the many times she saw Emma jotting things down in it before.

Now she was torn. She knew that Emma would eventually seek out her journal and this would be the place she would come to look for it. "I should just give it to the staff, they know her after all." Regina eyed the object with every intention to leave it with the bartender, but something came over her and she couldn't bring herself to do it.

She wanted to be the one to return Emma's journal to her. Regina wasn't sure what that would accomplish, if it would accomplish anything at all, but she was searching for any reason to interact with the blonde. And that's something she wouldn't readily admit.

With the idea in her mind, she threw on her overcoat and tucked the journal delicately between her side and her arm and made a beeline towards the door. The feeling of possessing one of Emma's belongings was strangely terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

During her ride home she had the journal placed neatly in her lap as she stared down at it, very tempted to open it and read what Emma kept herself so occupied with while at Cassie's. But the good in her told her that it would be an invasion of privacy if she had and it was already bad enough that she had taken the journal. But the bad in her screamed that it was already in her possession and she might as well go all the way, Emma would never have to know.

So she simply sat there staring at the object, completely torn and unmoving. She made a habit of focusing on the buildings she passed to try and keep her mind off the problem at hand.

When she arrived at her complex, she thanked her driver, as usual, and made a hasty escape from the car. She felt like, she imagined, a child would feel when they'd just gotten a new toy as she rushed to her door.

She stood in front of her door fumbling with her keys for a moment, but just as she had victoriously found the right one and was about to stick it into the keyhole, her front door swung open. She let out a small gasp for she was so obviously caught off guard and a bit on edge from her recent decision.

But when she saw that it was only Kathryn standing in her doorway holding a brownie in her hand she let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank goodness you're here." Regina moved passed her and took ahold of her arm in the process. "I've done something terrible, and I'm freaking out."

"Oh my god Regina you better not have done anything to destroy your image, we're already doing damage control with volunteering at Brearly. You better not lose this gig." Regina hadn't even realized that there was a third person moving around in her kitchen, but that voice was unmistakable.

"Mary Margret's here too?" Regina asked in a hushed tone.

"You should really check your messages sometimes, you would've known that we were going to be here. But you were obviously distracted. So...?" Kathryn looked at her best friend with a questioning gaze.

Just then, Regina's manager came waltzing out of the kitchen with a brownie and a glass of milk. "What did you do? And it better not have anything to do with another woman."

"It's not what you think." Regina stated calmly. "But it does have something to do with a woman, or two." She corrected, and that caused Kathryn's eyebrows to shoot up as she tried to stifle a smirk. Mary Margret on the other hand was not at all impressed.

"Two? Regina really? Every time I think you can do no worse than what you've already done, you go out and prove me wrong, like it's your job or something."

"It's not like that okay?" She fumbled to find the correct verbiage. "Just... Look." She settled on just holding the journal up for her two friends to see.

Both women looked sorely confused, not completely understanding what Regina was showing them. "Okay." Mary stated.

"What is that?" Kathryn asked.

Regina groaned and rolled her eyes. "Kathryn, you know!"

"It's a journal, obviously, but aside from that, I have no clue what you're trying to tell us right now."

"It's Emma's." Still, their faces were just as blank as when Regina initially showed them the book. Regina rolled her eyes again. "The blonde from the bar. The one I got caught up in talking to the night we all went to Cassie's together." And that seemed to spark a memory.

"Oh." Kathryn nodded. "Yea, she was the one that turned Regina down." Kathryn explained further to bring Mary up to speed.

"She turned you down?" The manager asked in amusement as she took a seat on the ottoman. "Good girl, I like her already."

"Hey, I'm not that bad." Regina retorted.

"Oh you're notorious, simply scathing."

"Or at least when it comes to women anyway." Kathryn sent a glare towards Mary Margret to which the pixie haired woman merely shrugged and took a sip of her milk.

"Well, anyway, this is hers." She restated. "She left it at the bar... And I took it... Oh, stop looking at me like I'm some thief. I'm going to return it."

"Okay?" Kathryn nodded. "Just a quick question, for clarification purposes, if you're going to return the journal back to her, was there any specific reason why you've made us believe you've done the most horrible thing? Or any reason at all why this is even discussion worthy?"

"Well, she obviously likes her Kathryn, I mean look at her. She's holding that book as if it were the most precious thing she's ever possessed."

Kathryn shot her friend a questioning look. "You told me that you weren't interested."

"She lied." Mary Margret said through a full mouth.

Regina sent her manager a glare. "She doesn't like me." Regina clarified. "She's made that much painfully clear."

"You never answered my question, and you're not denying that you don't like her. So is that what this is really about? You have a crush on her?"

"A crush?" Regina grimaced. "Why do you make it sound as if I'm in grade school? I'm just... Attracted to her. But I don't think it goes further than that."

"So a crush?" Kathryn deadpanned.

"Usually I tell you to stay away from these random women you somehow keep finding. But a crush? I think this could be good for you. Maybe it'll slow you down in the pursuit of other women."

"Or she could go out and screw everything with a pulse because she's afraid of these new feelings and she wants to forget about her." The blonde countered Mary Margaret's earlier statement.

That caused the manager to cringe. "Yea on second thought, maybe you should stay away from Cassie's for a while."

Looking to her left Regina grabbed two throw pillows from her couch and hauled them at the other two women. She missed Kathryn, but she managed to hit Mary Margaret's leg. "I'm right here, and just so you know, who I screw in my off hours is neither one of your business. I don't meddle in either of your personal lives."

"You kind of do."

Kathryn nodded in agreement with Mary.

"Whatever! The point is, is that I don't know how to go about this? I almost want to read it."

Two pairs of eyes bulged and Regina shrunk a little in her seat. "Well you can't do that."

"It's an invasion of privacy."

"I mean, what if that's her personal journal?" Kathryn brought up.

"Let's not forget the fact that you're not even supposed to have it. You should've given to the staff there for lost and found."

"Honestly, both of your points just makes me want to read it even more." The brunette pouted childishly.

"Give the woman her journal back."

The actress let a groan before staring down at the purple book. It was funny how an inanimate object just seemed like something Emma would have from its purple cover to its golden calligraphy. It was so her. "Fine." She said begrudgingly. "I'll go to Cassie's tomorrow after I volunteer and I'll return it. After that, I won't pursue her anymore." She stated shortly. "It's clear that I'm becoming desperate, and I will not play the fool for anybody... Not even if she is gorgeous and has my favorite colored eyes."

Mary and Kathryn seemed to be okay with that answer, or at least they didn't question her any further. But Regina was still pestered by it all as her friends brought up a different topic and began chatting happily amongst themselves.

After tomorrow, she wouldn't be bothered with any of this any longer.

X

Regina Mills adjusted the flaps of her trench coat as she briskly made her way towards Brearly. She couldn't, for the life of her, ever remember winters being this harsh before, and the season for snow hadn't even begun yet.

A violent shiver, that she felt in her bones, rocked her body as a strong gust of wind whipped and whistled through the air. The only images her brain could conjure in its half frozen state, were images of a tropical paradise or a cozy living room with a warm fireplace. Things that made her feel warm, like steaming mug of delicious hot chocolate or a nice summer day while the sun shined brightly up above with its golden, yellow rays that lit up the entire sky.

She smiled to herself as images of yellow and gold danced in her mind, in the warmest of ways, and began to form into longer, strand-like objects that spilled over lithe shoulders. Still, so dazzling the sun seemed to have a smile that was just as radiant as its essence. And a light flush to its pale cheeks. Suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, all Regina could find herself thinking about, as a distraction from the cold, were a pair of daring green eyes that seemed to resonate with so much unwavering passion.

Regina clutched her bottom lip in between her teeth, as she tried to remember details of the blonde's face. She admittedly hadn't spent much time memorizing Emma's features, and how could she? When all of their encounters were filled with so much tension and frustration. But what she did remember was enough to cause her cheeks to heat up. It was the daring green eyes that looked at her with so much fire, and maybe she was remembering things all wrong, but Regina just reveled in the idea of Emma looking at her in a similar manner while doing things aside from carrying out their normal pointless banter.

It was a mystery to the actress as to how Emma seemed to be even more enthralling in her thoughts. She was drawn to Emma and that was something that she could not deny. But with thoughts of the blonde, came the bitter reminder of the blonde's words from the day prior. Regina hadn't been reminded of what Emma told her yesterday, up until now. Emma Swan was dating someone, so that meant that she was taken or at least she was in the process of being taken, also not to mention that she was completely unbothered by Regina's clear attraction towards her. From that thought she also remembered that after today, she told herself she would make herself scarce around Cassie's just to create some distance. She didn't need this unrequited crush to be the destruction of her.

And just like that, the sun that Regina had so skillfully painted to block out the cold, didn't shine so bright and the wind began to reclaim her as she unconsciously became aware to her surroundings once more.

She blew out a visible puff of air as her frustrations grew. She was putting herself in a mood, one that didn't make her the most pleasant person to be around. But she would happily blame this one on Emma if she needed to, because the least the blonde could've done was caved, just in the slightest for Regina, but she never did.

The actress huffed and rolled her eyes as she trotted up the steps and into the school building. She could already hear the bustling students coming from the gymnasium. She had been a few minutes late, but nothing that Mr. Hopper was too concerned with when she called in to let him know.

Almost as soon as Regina pushed through the double gymnasium doors to go meet her fate at the hands of four small children, she was met with a much different fate. One that made the four children seem almost desirable, because there, standing not five feet away from her was one chatty Equestrian teacher. The brunette almost let out a groan when Belle's eyes randomly met hers.

Though the other woman looked as if she was simply going to continue on with her conversation and ignore Regina, Regina knew that she had to talk to Belle at some point about their supposed outing. With a roll of her eyes, she hung her head low and stalked over to Belle.

"Can we talk?" Regina asked lowly.

"I'm sorry you'll have to excuse me while I leave you standing here to look foolish while I run off and talk to everyone else aside from you."

"Okay, I deserved that." She replied slowly.

"You think?" Belle glared at her. "Because I don't think you realized how stupid you made me look last night, running after that girl, who completely ignored you by the way."

"I noticed." Regina basically growled out. She had already been in a mood, and she was simply trying to apologize but Belle was making things much more complicated than they needed to be.

"God, it's true... Every horrible thing that the tabloids write about you. All of it is true."

"Actually, dear, if you'd done proper research on me you would've found that the things they write about me are far from the truth, and the only thing more ridiculous about those articles are the people who are pathetic enough to actually believe them."

"Are you-"

"No I'm not." Regina interjected. "If you would've let me speak in the beginning, you would've found that I was actually trying to apologize for yesterday." Belle blinked twice before she offered up a blank stare in response clearly caught off guard. "I apologize for last night." Regina finished curtly, feeling more agitated than she probably should have felt.

If Belle wanted to say something in response, anything really, Regina didn't allow for her too. She's turned on her heels and disappeared into the thick crowd of bodies before the teacher could even react.

As the actress shuffled through the bodies, she scanned the crowd for her four little ones

in particular, and it didn't take very long to find them. "This day couldn't possibly get any worse." She muttered.

"What on earth are you all doing."

"Painting each other's faces." Violet giggled, and Regina ground her teeth together.

"Okay fine, but who's idea was it to do this?"

"It was Henry's idea." Peter stated bravely. "And at first I thought it was stupid, but then he painted Spider-Man on my face. So I'm happy about it."

"Don't say stupid." Regina corrected the boy before looking to Henry who sheepishly looked away. "Henry?"

"I'm sorry, it was just taking you a long time to come and we got bored."

"Well..." She combed her fingers through her hair. "I supposed your artwork isn't half bad." She said eyeing Lily's pink flower and Violet's gold crown. "Let's just get to work. We're behind."

X

"Ms. Mills, can I paint your face?"

Light taps on her left leg drew her away from the conversation that she was currently having with Robin Hood about the time he and his son, Roland, gotten stuck on a Ferris wheel at the state fair. The conversation wasn't particularly an interesting one, and Regina admittedly was not paying very much attention to what he was saying, but it was a good way to kill time as they waited for the remainder of the students to be picked up after a very eventful day.

"I beg your pardon?" Regina asked all too quickly, eager to be torn away from Robin.

Henry stared up at her, one hand now lightly grasping her pant material and his other hand extended towards the brunette actress holding a tube of black face paint. "I want to paint your face." He said softly, and his little features were fixed in the most serious way. His big brown eyes studied Regina's face as if he was mapping out the picture he wanted to paint at that very moment.

"Um, I don't think..." Regina's sentence sort of wandered off upon realizing that Robin had not gone anywhere. "Do you think I could just have a minute with him for a second?" She asked as she pointed down to Henry.

"Of course." Robin smiled before waving at Henry and making his way back to his own group. Regina watched him leave, letting out a sigh of relief once he was out of earshot.

"You saved me." The actress smiled down to her pint sized hero before she ruffled his hair a bit. She was still quite awkward around the children as a whole, but little Henry was her exception. He was the only child there that seemed to not only be comfortable with Regina, and from the looks of it, he actually liked her.

"So I can paint your face?" He asked with the hope that only a four year old child who hasn't experienced how cruel life actually is could possess.

"No." She chuckled heartedly. "Do you know what that paint would do to my skin?" Henry frowned in response, following closely behind Regina as she made her way to sit on the bleachers.

"It's hypoallergenic." The small boy offered as he strutted double the speed Regina was walking. "Virtually harmless."

"You're four." Regina smiled. "You're not supposed to be saying things like that at the age of four."

"Well, if you haven't noticed, I'm kind of a genius." He smiled and took his seat next to the actress. "And plus you owe me." Henry dead panned.

The brunette turned slightly to face him a little more as her mind wandered off to the first encounter she and Henry had. "I never agreed to let you smear paint all over my face."

"Not exactly... You simply agreed to give me anything I want, and I want to paint your face." He replied smugly.

Clearly shaken, Regina drew in her bottom lip between her teeth. "Don't you want something else? Anything else, like... I don't know. What do kids want at your age?"

"To paint your face." That mischievous grin displayed on Henry's face was enough to tell the actress that he probably wasn't going to budge on this. "You said it yourself that my face painting skills weren't so bad."

"What if we make another deal?"

The small artist didn't even hesitate while he laid out his supplies and cracked open his paint. "I've been practicing with my mom, and I can do Batman, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and a frog... Which would you like?" He asked as he swirled his paintbrush around in the black paint.

"Well from the looks of it, you've already decided that I'm Batman." She stated nervously before combing her hair out of her face with her fingers. "Just... Add purple or something. I'll be BatWoman."

"Got it." His little tongue darted out as he concentrated on each stroke of his brush. If he wasn't doing a good job, Regina sure was fooled, he gave off every impression that what he was doing was definitely going to go down in history as the next greatest masterpiece. The actress had to fight to maintain a straight face. A smirk was threatening to draw itself on her face.

"You like superheroes don't you?"

He nodded curtly in response. "I was the Silver Surfer last Halloween."

"And who do you want to be next Halloween?"

He hummed before he shrugged his shoulders. "Nobody."

Regina gasped in mock surprise. "No one at all?" She prodded.

"Nope."

"And just why not?" She asked curiously, momentarily forgetting that she needed to be still and tilted her head. Henry grimaced as his paintbrush went awry and slid ungracefully down Regina's cheek. "Sorry." She quickly corrected her head placement.

Henry stared at the mistake before shrugging and he continued to paint as if the hiccup never happened. "It's okay, I'll paint over that part of your face anyway."

The actress hummed in response as she stared at the child while he worked. "So are you going to tell me why you aren't dressing up this year or do I have to pry it out of you somehow."

He gave a small smile and shook his head. "Because I dressed up last Halloween, so this year we're going to stay in and pass out candy, and watch scary movies. We like to alternate."

"Wow, you watch scary movies?" She inquired. "When I was your age someone could've offered me a million bucks to watch a horror film, and I wouldn't have taken it. I was very skittish when I younger."

"Well, my mom always says that I was born a superhero in disguise and one of my many talents is watching scary movies without ever getting scared."

She giggled in response. "Well that's a neat superpower to have."

"Say cheese." Both Henry and Regina jolted at the sudden intrusion, breaking them away from their bubble that they'd unknowingly created. They turned in unison staring at the woman pointing her phone in their direction.

She had snapped several pictures before she ever said anything and she continued to snap them afterwards. "Your mom is going to love this." She gushed.

"Aunt Ruby!" Henry dropped his paintbrush and disregarded the rest of his painting tools. He was small and his legs were short, but Regina didn't think she'd ever seen anybody move more quickly than Henry did as he ran to Ruby. "When did you get here?" He said as he engulfed her legs in a hug.

She smiled and bent over to pick him up. "Here in New York or here at your school?"

"New York silly."

"I got here an hour ago, and your mom thought it would be a great surprise if I picked you up instead of her."

"She was right."

"And catch this, she's already left for work so you and I get to go on an ice cream date and play video games afterwards."

"Yea." They gave each other a high five before Ruby placed Henry back on the floor. Regina smiled politely at the woman who waved to her.

"I'm sorry I didn't get to finish your face, but it still looks pretty cool." He stated. "Tomorrow if we have some spare time, I can redo it." Regina didn't protest she simply nodded.

"I wouldn't mind that."

"Okay, see you tomorrow Ms. Mills." He stated as he ran back towards Ruby with his oversized backpack in tow.

"Goodbye Henry."

X

Regina walked up to Emma just as she had done many nights before. And just like those many nights Emma was completely oblivious to her approaching figure. The actress found it to be both infuriating and still somehow endearing. It was so like her, Regina couldn't help but think.

Her fingers twitched around the purple journal that she was about to return. There was a wave of anxiety that seemed to wash over her right before she got close enough to slide the book back to its owner. There was something about Emma that managed to make Regina nervous, oddly enough. And a part of that could be attributed to how unpredictable the blonde had been in Regina's eyes thus far.

But still, she kept her bearing before swiftly placing the notebook beside one unsuspecting Emma Swan and she turned to leave. She didn't have the energy for pointless banter at this point. She knew that returning Emma's journal was the equivalent of raising her white flag.

Regina told herself that this was it.

She returned to her table in the back of the lounge and contemplated just leaving all together. But just as she was about to gather her things a waiter approached her with a wine bottle in one hand a glass in the other.

"Compliments of the lady in the stylish gray overcoat." The waiter smiled in a charming manner as he poured the wine into her glass. All the while, Regina had been completely thrown by his whole arrival. Sensing her confusion the waiter cleared his throat and placed the bottle down on her table. "She told me to say that." He clarified. "She said that you would get it."

She eyed him curiously still not fully understanding what he meant. "Who are you talking about?"

"Oh." He flushed in slight embarrassment. "Emma Swan." He motioned towards the bar where she sat, in her usual position, with a book firmly in place as she concentrated solely on her text and absolutely nothing else.

Regina eyed her quietly feeling her lips turn upward into a half smile. "Thank you." She stated once she was able to pry her eyes away from the bar.

He smiled and gave a curt nod before he went on his way. Regina went back and forth with herself, trying to decide if she should go over to Emma or just leave. She really didn't want their conversation to end in an argument because it never failed, that's how things have always ended, but she also wanted to thank the blonde personally.

Emma had made the first move, and that was a good sign, but Regina didn't know how to react or if Emma even wanted her to react. Her eyes searched the wine as if it had the answers. It didn't, of course, but something told her she knew what she was going to do regardless of any coherent thoughts she may have had, and sure enough, before she could fully process her actions she had walked back over to the bar and sat quietly beside Emma.

"Thank you for the wine." Regina started hesitantly, a little thrown by the fact that Emma still refused to acknowledge her presence.

"Thank you for returning my journal... I trust that you didn't read it?" She inquired with a glance sent towards Regina. The actress stilled, getting caught in how alluring Emma's eyes were for a moment.

"I... Wanted to, honestly, but I didn't." She finally conceded.

Emma sighed and stilled her hand before she closed her book and placed it in front of her. "I know why you're so fascinated with me." She stated and brown eyes met green ones.

"Of all the things I imagined you would say to me, that was not one of them."

Emma shook her head, seemingly amused by the brunette. "You know that you only want me because I've told you no repeatedly, correct?"

Regina shook her head in denial. "Actually no, you caught my attention way before you ever bruised my ego." She joked lightly.

The blonde eyed her curiously. It was a welcomed change in pace from the usual way Emma barely made eye contact at all. "But that's the only reason you keep coming back though. The moment I say yes, you'll have your way with me and then you'll have nothing else to do with me."

"And you know that because?" She inquired with a small smirk on her face. "You barely know me."

"I don't have to know you. I know your type, and I see you Regina Mills." She stated in a voice laced with knowingness.

Regina sucked in both of her lips feeling like she was drowning in Emma. "You could be wrong though." She offered.

"I don't think I am, that's just what you'd like me to believe."

"Okay..." Regina stated lowly as she stared directly into the blonde's eyes. There was a pause in the conversation, neither one of the women offered anything.

"Okay?" Emma stated after waiting a beat. "That's all you're going to say? I half expected you to yell at me."

Regina did something between a laugh and a scoff and shook her head. "It's clear, that you're convinced you know me. So..." She shrugged. "It would be pointless for me to continue making a fool of myself."

Emma regarded her thoughtfully. "So what now?" She asked carefully.

"I should go?" And it came out as more of a question, because if she was being honest she didn't want to leave, but she didn't know if it was alright to stay.

"Or..." Emma picked up her book again. "You can stay." She shrugged one shoulder lightly. Not expecting that, in the slightest, Regina let out a sigh of relief and for once was glad Emma sat there quietly getting lost in her own little world.

She wasn't sure of whether Emma was right or wrong about her reasons of attraction, but what Regina was sure of was the fact that Ms. Swan had her attention, and it solely belonged to her.


	5. Chapter 5

"Why are you staring at me?"

A noticeable jolt passed through Regina's body upon the vocal acknowledgement that she had been caught leering once again. How on earth had she done that? Regina thought and she almost blurted it out, but instead she quickly turned her attention to the bartender moving busily in front of her just to keep her eyes from gazing too intently at the blonde beside her. "I wasn't."She spoke just before she cleared her throat. It would seem that the air between them was quickly beginning to grow tense, or at least it was on Regina's end. Emma seemed to be impassive as always with eyes that stayed glued to her book, and a perfectly impassive expression.

"You're lying." It was simply stated and in such a way that made Regina feel like she couldn't deny the accusation even if it were false because Emma wouldn't believe her anyway.

Her tongue darted out to wet her lips, her throat felt dry. She felt dehydrated suddenly, like there was this unquenchable thirst forming in her mouth and maybe that was due to the wine, alcohol always did have a bit of a drying affect on anyone. But Regina felt thirsty for something else, not liquid, something that only Emma Swan possessed and she wasn't exactly certain herself what that could possibly be or even what that meant. "I-" Her eyes rolled to the ceiling effortlessly as she tried to think of the correct words. "I would like to talk to you..." Regina had never been this hesitant before, sounding very unsure and childlike, and maybe that's why Emma's pale green eyes darted toward her slightly agape. Her expression was almost mocking, Regina thought. As if Emma was silently taunting her with a teasing question like "that's it?"

But the blonde said nothing along the lines, in fact she simply stayed quiet, figuring Regina wanted to say more. "But I'm not really sure I know how to go about doing that." The actress winced at her own words, hearing them come out of her own mouth made her realize how pathetic she must look to Emma, especially when she had came on so strongly to her in the past. Yet, she continued to speak because this was the first opportunity she got to actually engage with Emma and it wasn't in a hostile or unkind manner. That, and also because the worst had already been said. She figured that if acting hadn't taught her anything at all, it taught her that once you start something, you have to commit to it. And so she did. "It never donned on me that I'd actually get as far as sitting here civilly with you and..." She gave a shrug that was followed by a pause, clearly at a loss of words. "I... I don't really know what to say."

Regina felt herself grow nervous when Emma didn't speak right away. But she quickly let out a subtle sigh of relief when a small smirk-like smile spread across Emma's lips, one that Regina had never seen before. "This isn't some complicated meeting you know? We can have a conversation if that's what you like." The words fell off of her lips so effortlessly that Regina had to remind herself to look Emma in the eyes and not at her mouth. She would take this time to memorize her features though. Burn every little detail about Emma's face into her memory. "...just so long as you don't become conceited and overbearing like you were in the beginning." Were the final words Regina seemed to tune back in on, it caused her to furrow her eyebrows in disdain. She felt her upper lip curl as she shook her head in denial.

"I'm neither one of those things." She countered bullishly. To which Emma gave her a look that could only be described as _dour_. And Regina, always one to accept a challenge, met her gaze full on, knowing that Emma was right, but it wasn't in her nature to give up so easily. "Okay fine." She finally conceded after a few added moments of their silent staring contest. The actress rolled her eyes with a firm pout on her face. "Maybe I can be a bit _abrasive_ at first, but never conceited or overbearing." She was willing to compromise, but she wasn't willing to just flat out admit that Emma was right about her.

The blonde shook her head but not in any particular way. So Regina didn't know if Emma was annoyed with her answer or if she was simply shaking her head out of habit.

Amusement was the answer though, Regina's eyes dropped, automatically, to Emma's lips when the shape of a smile slowly began to form, causing Regina to sink a little further into her seat. She felt her breath hitch. Emma never once smiled at her before, she realized. "You insulted me during our first encounter after I wouldn't sleep with you." She spoke through a bit of a laugh and Emma could have been making fun of her, telling her how ridiculous she thought Regina was that first night, but the smile that she displayed gave Regina butterflies, and suddenly the thought of being teased, didn't really matter all that much. Not if it caused Emma to smile at her like she was. Regina could bear it. She was willing to bear it.

"I- well... I" She spluttered, saying words but not forming any coherent sentences, too thrown by the dazzling and slightly triumphant smile Emma was sending her way. "Abrasive" She finally managed out in a curt tone. "I admit that I can be a bit abrasive, sometimes."

"So stubborn." Emma stated softly as her smile slowly began to decrescendo. Regina took notice to how she seemingly longed for Emma to smile at her again. How she unconsciously smiled at Emma with the pitiful hope that she would mirror her action. How she had gotten so fixated, so quickly was surprising and terrifying at the same time. She needed her own leverage, Emma had too much of an effect on her already. She needed to buy back some of her self-control and pride.

"Coming from you?" The smile still stayed on her lips as she feigned shock. "I'll let that slide, but for the record, the only reason it escalated to me showing off my abrasive persona in the first place, was because you were quite rude yourself. I was nice to you at first." Emma pondered that silently and then a look of realization set in on her features. Regina felt a smirk forming on her lips at the invisible power play going on. She was regaining the upper hand. "Plus you insulted me first."

Emma quickly shook her head. "No, that's where you're wrong." She shook her index finger in a disapproving way. "You insulted me first. When you came over here thinking I'd sleep with you for no other reason than you wanting me to." Emma stated bluntly. Regina parted her lips, as if she was ready to protest, but what could she say to possibly defend herself against that very true accusation? It would seem that the upper hand was never within her reach when it came to dealing with one Emma Swan.

"But you didn't even have the decency to put down your book and look me in the eyes." She folded her arms and looked away, feeling slightly peeved at her-self for letting Emma get away with saying and doing so much. How did she let that happen?

The blonde must have sensed the shift in Regina's attitude and if she didn't, Regina's closed off body language was saying everything she needed to hear. Emma quickly glanced down to her book and journal before she closed both and slowly raised her eyes to meet brown ones. "Well now you have my attention, Ms. Mills. What is it that you would like to do with it?" There was a hint of mischief in her voice that made Regina turn and face her again. She studied Emma's inscrutable gaze and felt the unquenchable thirst arising once more.

The darker haired woman gulped as she blindly reached for her wine glass before tossing back a gulp that was the furthest thing from ladylike. Emma was somehow proving to be the most intricate enigma Regina had ever encountered and she wasn't used to such a compelling force of attraction. Emma was stirring all of these strange urges within her, while the blonde seemed so unperturbed by Regina herself. And if Regina was indeed having the same affect on Emma as Emma had on her, she was doing a great job at not showing it. "I want to talk."Regina spoke softly, slowly with great caution, as if she were afraid that her voice would betray her and say words that were meant only for her thoughts.

Emma smirked in return. Playful, the actress noted. Emma seemed to have a streak of teasing playfulness about her."You've already mentioned that, remember?"

"Okay so... Right-" She combed her fingers through her hair, growing a bit frustrated with herself. She had encountered many women in the past. It was baffling that this one woman was causing her so much trouble. "I'm sorry, but I was just not expecting the evening to go this way... At all. This-" she motioned back and forth in the space between them. "-us sitting here speaking politely with one another is very much so unexpected." Emma laughed, and that was new for Regina too. "What? Why are you laughing?"

But the blonde just continued and Regina could feel her cheeks grow warm with embarrassment. "I'm not- you're just funny is all."

"I don't see what was so amusing in what I said?"

Emma held a residual smile on her lips as she shrugged her shoulders. "You just- I don't know, I guess it's funny how you just had this one idea in your head about me." She tilted her head slightly and peered at the actress with amused eyes. "I'm not quite clear of who you've made me out to be, but she doesn't sound like me at all."

Regina almost scoffed, a little offended by Emma's lack of acknowledgment of every single one of their encounters before this one. "Well, all I had to go by were the versions you've shown me. And nothing I've seen in the past led me to believe that today would be any different. I was going to return your journal and then never speak to you again." She said honestly. "But then, out of nowhere, you... Changed?" Regina squinted her eyes as a thought occurred to her that piqued her interest. "Why?" She asked curiously and if this were an animation this would be the scene where the light bulb hopped to life over the main character's head after she was struck with a groundbreaking thought. "What changed? Why, are we able to sit here in each other's company, suddenly, and have a, dare I say it, normal and even pleasant conversation? I mean just yesterday you told me that you didn't like me."

"If my memory serves me correctly, and I think it does, you said the exact same thing to me." She replied without ever missing a beat.

"But only because you said it first." Regina admitted sheepishly. She felt slightly embarrassed from the admission.

"I didn't mean it though." Regina tried to remain impassive but the corners of her lips held a vicious threat to turn upwards upon hearing those words. "I felt bad for your poor date. You left her completely to chase after me, someone who was not even looking to steal you away. Yet you came anyway... with all of your obnoxious antics to get me to cave. She didn't deserve that."

"I should've never agreed to go out with her; clearly my attention was set... elsewhere. And for the record, I apologized to her for that." Regina finished lamely after realizing she'd shared information that wasn't exactly pertinent to Emma. She wasn't sure why she'd said it and she was even more unsure of the reasons behind her actually wanting Emma to know these things. Like what Emma actually thought of Regina mattered. It shouldn't have. The actress's personal affairs were none of Emma's concern, but still somehow Regina wanted Emma to know that she wasn't all bad.

"I agree."

Regina swallowed thickly just before she began to glance around the lounge as she tried to think of something to say. It was rather infuriating to finally have the woman's attention that she so desired only to be rendered dumb. "So, I'm still back at square one. What changed?" She asked once more.

"Your intentions" Emma said with a slight nod. "You finally did something nice without there being any underlying intentions."

Regina furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to think back on everything she'd done recently and came up short and confused. "But I didn't do anything." She denied, still consciously trying to figure out what Emma was referring to.

"But you did." She countered softly. "You returned my journal without reading it, without giving me the ultimatum of talking to you or not returning it, and you didn't just keep it, because you could have. I would've never known... You just gave it back to me without expecting anything in return." She gave a small smile.

"That can't be it?" Regina didn't believe that one simple act of kindness could end their budding feud.

"But it is." Emma nodded assuring her that it was in fact that one small gesture, a quick moment in time. The act was simple, yet meaningful enough in the eyes of some.

So there they were, silently regarding one another, in the absence of all tensions that had previously resided between them. The air between them was even more comfortable now. "I never expected it to be so... Easy." Regina said in a way that made Emma believe she was simply thinking out loud.

"I'm not as complicated as you've made me out to be in your head Ms. Mills."

_Yes you are! My thoughts were an understatement compared to how confusing and complicated you actually are to me._ Screamed Regina's thoughts, but she wouldn't dare say that aloud. There was no need to voice her inner anxieties about the blonde, so she sealed her lips shut and silently nodded her head in faux agreement.

Emma turned to face forward, and Regina watched her smooth movements. She skillfully flagged down the bartender and waited for him to arrive. "I have a bit of a confession." She stated with her eyes watching the approaching figure.

"What is it?" Regina managed to hide the eagerness in her voice to know what Emma was talking about very well.

Before Emma could answer, the bartender came and took her order, a Cosmopolitan. Classy, it fit her. And she looked to Regina, silently asking if there was anything else she may have wanted besides the wine. But the brunette politely declined. Once the bartender was out of earshot Emma turned to face Regina once more. "I lied... I wasn't going on a date yesterday."

Regina automatically cringed at the memory of Emma telling her that she was going out yesterday, with a man, just for added affect. But she wouldn't readily admit to herself that she actually cared if Emma was seeing someone else or not. Her intentions, from the beginning, were never to get tied up in the blonde. She'd only had one purpose when it came to her persistence with Emma, but now after tonight she wasn't so sure. "Why did you feel like you had to tell me that?" Regina prodded.

"I don't know." Emma blinked. "I don't like being dishonest."

"Then why were you?"

"You can be very infuriating sometimes, and I think you know that." She paused only momentarily as the bartender came back with her drink in hand. She accepted it and offered him his payment, before she continued. "Seeing how you treated your date in combination with your continuous onslaught of advances towards me just made me so angry. It was the only thing I could think to say to get you to just, stop."

Regina arched an eyebrow, a little unsure of what to do with that big of information. "Okay...?"

"I just, thought I'd let you know." Emma offered.

"Okay." She said with more assurance and a head nod. "I'll take that. I guess I can be infuriated sometimes." Regina teased and Emma smiled in turn. "So what am I other times?" She asked smoothly.

Emma did a slight double take and Regina threw a mental celebration at how Emma seemed to be slightly flustered. "What do you mean?"

"You said I'm infuriating, only some of the times, so what am I all the other times?"

"You're... I guess-" Brown eyes watched as green eyes raked over the form of her sitting figure. "You are bearable, during the other times." She punctuated with a healthy gulp of her Cosmo. Regina smirked, because she felt like her old self, her powerful self. She felt like the woman Hollywood portrayed her to be. The Notorious Playgirl was what they called her, because she had a certain affect on women, many women, and this was it. Finally, Emma had shown a crack in her impassive wall and Regina didn't feel the need to do anything about it at the moment, but it was reassuring to know that she at least had some type of affect on Emma.

"Not what I was hoping for, but I'm happy with that answer nevertheless." She replied playfully. "So you're not dating a man?" Regina asked slowly for reasons unbeknownst to her.

"No." Emma confirmed.

"So you're...?" Regina tried to coax the blonde into finishing her sentence so that she wouldn't have to ask flat out.

"Single?" Emma asked, and then replied before Regina could either confirm or deny. "I am." She nodded.

And Regina shook her head. "No, I wasn't going to ask that actually. What I was trying to ask in a rather roundabout way was, are you a lesbian? Or at least bisexual?"

The blonde displayed a coy smirk. "Wouldn't you want to know?" She asked playfully. "How inconvenient would it be for you if I was neither of those?" She smiled triumphantly when Regina gave her just the reaction she was hoping for. Shock, disbelief and maybe even disappointment. "Were you not expecting that?"

"I'm just trying to figure out why you would spend so much time in Cassie's if you weren't at the very least bisexual? I mean this lounge isn't exactly known to draw in the straightest crowd."

"So because I enjoy the atmosphere of a lesbian lounge, that automatically makes me a lesbian or at the very least bisexual?" Emma countered with a hint of annoyance in her voice that Regina immediately picked up on.

She raised both of her hands in surrender sensing an argument if they continued on the track they were headed in. "No I didn't mean it like that. I just..." She trailed off. "I don't know what I thought."

"Well I'm not." Emma said firmly.

"Okay..." And for a moment they were both quiet. The tension had unknowingly crept back between them and now the atmosphere was growing slightly cold. Regina had to think that maybe this was always going to be the nature of their encounters. Just hostile and cold, but the few moments of normalcy were good while it lasted.

"What if I said that I don't know?" She thought she heard Emma mumble. And her thoughts were confirmed when she turned to see that Emma was looking at her with so much hesitance in her gaze.

"You mean you don't know if you're a lesbian or bi-"

"No, that's not what I meant at all. I meant... What if I don't know if I like women?"

Regina furrowed her eyebrows but decided against saying that it was basically the same thing, because to some people labels weren't a necessity and the title could be quite frightening if you weren't completely comfortable with yourself. "Well have you ever been with a woman?" She asked.

"No."

"Would you like to be with a woman?" Regina asked curiously.

"I-" The blonde hesitated for a moment. "No, I don't think so." She shook her head. "Or maybe I do... It's all quite confusing." She let out a defeated sigh. "I can't believe that I'm actually having this conversation with you right now. It's embarrassing for me to talk about. Girls question their sexuality, teenagers question their sexuality, but I'm 28 years old, I should've had this all figured out by now."

"Um..." Regina watched the other woman and couldn't help but think that the puzzle pieces were finally starting to come together in some areas. She was shocked by Emma's answer but it would explain a few aspects of Emma's character that she couldn't understand before. "There's nothing wrong with that Emma, there is no age limit when it comes to matters such as this one. You're still..." She let her eyes roam. "Very attractive to me." She admitted.

The blonde gave a curt nod and drummed her fingers against her glass. "Thank you." She stated softly and raked a few unruly strands of blonde hair behind her ear. "Both for the compliment and allowing me to share that with you..." Regina thought that Emma would say more, because she sure did look like she wanted to add something else, but there was only silence that followed her statement.

By now Regina was used to their bouts of silence, but what seemed to catch her off guard was that Emma was now collecting her things. "Are you leaving?"

"Yea." She answered. "I need to get going anyway, it's pretty late. Plus I don't want to hold you up from doing anything that you need to take care of."

Regina struggled to process Emma's words as she glanced down at her wristwatch. It was nearly 1 a.m. How had time gone by so quickly? It seemed like Regina only approached Emma at the bar for the second time that evening mere moments ago. "You're right." She dropped her shoulders, watching Emma prepare to depart. "It _is_ late."

The blonde nodded and Regina caught a glimpse of a small smile on her lips. "That's the same thing I said." Emma fixed her purse strap on her shoulder and looked up at Regina with an almost beckoning gaze, Regina thought, and maybe it was the wine that was slightly clouding her judgement to perceive the way Emma was looking at her. Because she very well could've just been giving Regina a look of gratitude, but either way whether Emma was beckoning Regina with her eyes or not, the actress couldn't help but reach out and gently grab her arm.

"Emma wait... Before you go..." She faltered upon the realization that she had no real reason of stopping the blonde. It would seem that she not only managed to surprise Emma, but she also managed to surprise herself. "Sorry, I-" she let go of Emma's arm as if it had suddenly caught on fire. They'd managed to have one conversation, and that didn't mean anything. "W-what is that you study or you write about?" Regina blurted out once she caught sight of the purple journal being stuffed into Emma's bag. It was a rather desperate, pathetic attempt to get the blonde to stay a little longer.

"Oh." Emma's eyebrows lifted, but she continued to put her things away regardless. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." She sort of chuckled out.

And that seemed to only fuel Regina to want to know, that much more. "Tell me anyway." She requested.

"That's a story for another day." Emma persisted.

What exactly was she hoping to accomplish once she stopped Emma from leaving anyway? A question, she herself couldn't even begin to answer. "Goodnight Emma." She managed to say amidst her own inner turmoil.

The blonde lingered in her spot and Regina could feel Emma looking at her. She thought, for a second that something would actually happen, Emma would say something or do something. What? She wasn't sure exactly, but nothing happened. And Regina wasn't at all surprised when Emma merely muttered a curt "goodnight" and walked away. In the end that's what she expected would happen. Moments after the blonde had left, Regina still sat rooted in her spot unable to shake that pestering feeling of yearning she felt in the pit of her stomach.

She thought that she might actually want to chase after Emma, to stop her from leaving, again. But what would she say? What reason did she have to chase after her? The actress couldn't give herself one plausible answer and so she too gathered her own belongings, much like Emma had, and exited the lounge.


	6. Chapter 6

"So how are things? I feel like we haven't spoken to each other in ages." Kathryn commented as she tried on the umpteenth pair of shoes. Regina simply shrugged as she sipped her coffee and carelessly scanned the boot section. She wasn't really looking for anything in particular, she just thought it would be good to do something other than volunteer or pine after Emma for once.

"Everything is good, just trying to stay out of the tabloids and keep Mary Margret a.k.a my mother happy." The actress gave an eye roll, accompanied by a smirk. Kathryn stood up to get a feel for the shoes and did a few poses.

"So I take it the volunteering is going well? Tomorrow is your last day right?" She asked as she did a few runway walks up and down the aisle. Regina snorted in response, leave it to Kathryn to always know how to make her laugh without even trying.

"Yea, and surprisingly enough, I think I'm going to miss it. The kids were actually quite enjoyable." Kathryn gasped abruptly which caused Regina to jolt and spill a small splash of coffee on the skin of her hand. She hissed in pain as she swatted the liquid off and flashed Kathryn a glare. "What in the world is wrong with you?" The actress practically growled at her best friend.

And the blonde simply covered her mouth with her hand as she unsuccessfully tried to hide her smile. "Shoot, Regina I wasn't trying to scare you. It's just- I don't know, the fact that you actually had a good time shocked me." She giggled before she plopped back down to take off the shoes she was trying only to start fiddling with another pair.

"You made me burn my hand."

"Oh stop being a drama queen, that burn is superficial it'll stop stinging in like an hour."

"So you think that just because you play a brilliant medical student in a made up tv show that you can give me a prognosis now?" The brunette narrowed her eyes playfully at her friend.

"Precisely." The blonde beamed up at her.

Regina simply shook her head in amusement. She turned and walked a little further away from Kathryn and closer to the window only so that she could see all of the patrons snuggled up in their heaviest winter clothes as they walked briskly to their destinations. "How's David?" She asked a little offhandedly.

She missed the way pale blue eyes went slightly agape and the way Kathryn seemed to panic momentarily behind her. "Uh, he's good, not any different from how he normally is. What makes you ask? Has he said anything to you?"

Regina turned with furrowed eyebrows only to be met with an inquisitive gaze bestowed upon her. "Whoa." She held up both her hands in mock surrender. "I simply wanted to know how my friend was doing that's all."

"Oh." Kathryn let her gaze fall slowly before she shrugged and continued to fuss with the buckle on her heels. "Well you could just ask him you know... why ask me?"

Regina arched a playful eyebrow and hid her smile by taking a small sip of her scalding coffee. "Oh I don't know." She feigned ignorance. "I just thought you would know is all."

Kathryn's cheeks tinted red, as she sensed the knowing sarcasm in Regina's voice. She ducked her head and swept a few off her golden locks in front of her face in a failed attempt to hide her bashfulness. "Don't play coy Regina... I know that you know." Kathryn kind of huffed out.

"Oh?" Perfectly painted red lips formed a small 'o' as she milked the other actress's embarrassment. "And what is it in particular that I know?" She asked, falling in love with the mortified look the blonde gave her. Payback for getting burned with her coffee Regina told herself.

"You know." Kathryn bit out through wide eyes, silently trying to beg her friend not to make her come right out and say it.

"Yes of course I know, dear, but I would most certainly love to hear you say how you and David have been "secretly" seeing one another and both of you seemingly forgot to mention it to me as if I wasn't on to you long before you two ever became an item in the first place." The brunette stated proudly and flashed a broad smile when Kathryn on sent her a look of disbelief.

"You knew and you didn't say anything?"

"Well, obviously I knew. I only dropped a million hints, and also it wasn't my place to say anything. It was your secret to tell not mine. I'm just more shocked that you two didn't trust me enough to want to tell me." Regina left the window and walked closer to her friend. "Kind of hurts." She stated matter-of-factly before she took a healthy gulp of her coffee and immediately regretted it.

"It's not that we didn't want to tell you, trust me, we talked about telling you so many times. We just didn't want things to feel awkward, or like you were the third wheel when we all got together."

"Trust me when I say that I'm a big girl, and I've been much too... occupied, I should say, with my own web of feelings to feel secluded by the two of you."

Kathryn nodded silently as she swiped some of her hair behind her ear, and Regina could tell that she had something to say. So, the brunette waited patiently as the blonde sorted through her thoughts. "Speaking of, you know, your web of feelings." She moved her hands in circular motions in front of Regina as if she could draw an actual picture of Regina's colorful verbiage. "How are things with Barbie? Have you finally moved past her? Or..?"

Regina wanted to groan in frustration because that's just how she felt about one Ms. Emma Swan. She had never been so enthralled and intrigued by one woman yet so confused. She had went from wanting to sleep with the blonde to telling herself she'd leave her alone completely to now, wanting to just be around her and get to know every little detail Emma would reveal to her. "I, uh-" she sighed as she raked her fingers through her hair. "It's complicated I guess." Regina scanned the store before she decided to take residence on a nearby stool. "She's an enigma, and I can't even begin to scratch the surface with her."

"So the outcome isn't to sleep with her anymore?" Kathryn prodded, and Regina furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head.

Regina sat quietly for a few passing moments as the blonde stared at her expecting and answer. And she got just that when Regina shrugged her shoulders. "I mean I guess that wouldn't be the worst possible outcome, but I just can't help but feeling like... I don't know, like it's not just about that with her. She's- she is so much more than the random women, as Mary Margret would say, I would usually fill my bed with and inadvertently my ego."

Kathryn's eyebrows shot up in surprise and she completely stopped her administrations on the shoes. "Wow, that's... different, coming from you. I'm not sure if this girl is having a really good influence on you or if she's just completely breaking you and driving you to go mad."

"Ha ha, Kathryn, very funny." Regina rolled her eyes. "I only mean that she has... depth." Regina found herself staring at the ceiling as she thought about the very private and intimate detail Emma shared about herself the last time they spoke to one another. It was the first, and so far, the only concrete clue she had as to who Emma really was as a person.

"So you're seeing this one as a person and not as a play thing... yep, she is to you, what kryptonite is to superman."

"Shut up."

"What? It's not a bad thing. In fact I think it's about time someone has had this affect on you. You've been in dire need of a wake up call my friend. And I say that with lots of love." She beamed triumphantly.

Maybe Kathryn was right, or maybe she was wrong. Either way Regina knew that she almost wanted to resent the growing attraction she was feeling towards Emma, but she couldn't bring herself to do so due to the fact that she found herself looking forward to a chance encounter with the blonde. Those annoyingly persistent yet new and fresh feelings that were developing at a particularly alarming rate were becoming quite exciting and rather enthralling.

"Yea." Was all Regina could muster as a particular pair of green eyes took residence in her thoughts. And just like that, Regina Mills, Hollywood's Notorious Playgirl, was once again lost in the idea of Emma Swan.

X

A bustling crowd or families moved about the courtyard of Brearly enjoying everything the Thanksgiving Festival had to offer. Oddly enough Regina was really enjoying herself. Her booth was amongst the more popular attractions seeing as how most of her visitors simply wanted a photo with her. Mary Margret hadn't misguided her after all. She'd even given a few interviews, one for the school newspaper, another for the local news station, and oddly enough People Magazine had sent someone out to highlight her in one of their next editions. She wasn't complaining though Brearly was giving her a good name, and the work she was doing was admittedly fun. She was having a good time mingling with fans and meeting some of the parents.

She'd seen every one of 'her' children, that is the children she was assigned at the beginning of this whole thing, except Henry. And she found that every little boy with dark hair and pale skin seemed to stick out to her. She was unknowingly searching for him. He had grown on her the most and she didn't want to leave the event without at least saying hello.

But the day was young and things were seemingly just getting started, it would be a while before she left. She'd see Henry to say goodbye at some point.

"You know, from everything that I hear, in the tabloids and just from word of mouth I wouldn't think this would be your particular crowd."

Regina snapped out of her musings as she turned to the left to be met with a strikingly beautiful blonde. She was shorter than the brunette herself and she had effortless blonde curls that were both chaotic, yet aesthetically pleasing.

Regina smirked in response. "Well, that makes two of us." She stated back honestly which caused the woman to giggle as she reached out her hand and moved closer to the actress.

"My name is Tori, Tori Green. But..." she cutely went off on a tangent. "Everyone likes to call me Tink." Regina shook the woman's hand, flashing her a confused look. "Oh, its short for Tinker Bell. I was her in a school play once, a very long time ago, and no one seems to be able to let it go."

"Oh, I see." Regina nodded with a smile. "Tink, suits you, but if you don't mind, I would much rather call you Tori."

"Oh yes, please do." She laughed as she dropped Regina's hand. "And if you don't mind I'd prefer to call you Regina, or would you rather I refer to you as Ms. Mills?" The blonde asked inquisitively.

"Regina is fine." She smiled before turning to see an approaching family. "Can I ask you what it is you would like from me?" The actress asked as she entertained the small child at her booth. "Do you want like a picture or would you like to guess what's in my magical hat for a surprise?" She joked as she watched the family leave.

"No." Tori said through a smile. "I'm actually here to pester you for just a small interview."

"Okay, go ahead. Ask away." Regina turned to fully face the other woman now.

But The blonde only laughed in response. "Aren't you even going to ask which television station or magazine I'm with?" She asked curiously.

"Oh, I just figured you were... actually never mind. Would you like to tell me who's backing you?"

She hummed in response as she took a step closer to the brunette. "Well, Regina, I'm here on behalf of the Times magazine, as in the New York Times, and it seems that my boss has taken quite the interest in you. She wants to feature you exclusively in one of our December editions."

Regina's eyebrows shot up in surprise upon hearing such great news. A smile spread across her face as she stared at the shorter woman. "And judging by that smile, I'd say that you're pretty happy about it." Tori rummaged through her purse before she pulled out a small business card and handed it to the actress. "Here's my card. Whenever you get some free time call my office. We'll get you all set up for a shoot and your interview." She flashed a wicked smile as she tapped on the ten digit number printed on the paper. "How does that sound?"

"Wow." Regina gushed as she stared down at the card. "That sounds amazing. Thank you." She didn't question it, though something told her that maybe she should have, seeing as how she was on a bit of a hiatus at the moment and hadn't done any notable work since 'The Plagiarist.' There was virtually no reason for her to have be honored with a feature, and in such a prestigious magazine at that. Typically an actress was only featured, after she'd just finished a big role like an Oscar winning role or done some Angelina Jolie humanitarian work overseas. Or at least something along those lines. Regina hadn't recently done either of those things, so she was surprised to say the least.

"You're welcome. I'll be seeing you." Tori extended her hand and they shook on it one last time before she smiled and waved goodbye.

Regina simply couldn't wait to tell Mary Margret.

The afternoon passed by fairly quick after Regina had received her good news and before she knew it, the sky was tinted with different hues of pink and orange as the sun began to set. The crowd had thinned drastically and the temperature dropped as well. Regina was busying herself with the breakdown and clean up, she didn't feel right to just leave. That and also she was hoping that she'd still see Henry, she really wanted to say goodbye to him. But that hope seemed to die the moment the last booth was broken down and all of the volunteers were saying their goodbyes. Surely Henry wouldn't have spent the whole day at the fair and not even stop the booth he helped to create. Or would he? It confused Regina to think about.

"Ms. Mills." Robin smiled. "I take it that you had a good time at the Thanksgiving Fair this year?"

"Yea, actually I had a really good time. How about you Roland? Did you have fun?" The small boy nodded as unruly curls swayed back and forth under his hat. "Are you going to come again next Thanksgiving?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe, if my job allows me to, I will definitely consider it."

Roland smiled and did a little fist bump in the air. "Yay!" He squealed and both of the adults laughed in amusement before Robin placed his son on the ground.

"Go inside and find mom so we can get you home."

"Okay." Roland said before he zoomed back inside of the school house in search of his mother.

"It's a really good thing you did for these kids by volunteering, and I'm no idiot I see all of the articles about you and I hear all of the gossip, but let me be the first to personally say that you are definitely not who they try to portray you as."

Regina smiled and nodded in response. "Thanks Robin, and you know what it was nice meeting you." And surprisingly, she meant it.

"Same." They gave each other one last friendly hug and Regina turned to leave, but she didn't make it five steps before she remembered something.

"Hey Robin, before I go, I didn't get a chance to see Henry today, and I got him something. I know that you're here often, or at least more than I will be now that the Thanksgiving Fair is over, maybe you could pass it along."

Robin furrowed his eyebrows as Regina pulled out a batman keychain and dangled it in front of her. Sensing his confusion she felt the need to further explain the gift. "Henry was my favorite, and he really likes superheroes. I thought he'd like this keychain." She stated lamely.

"Oh, I see... well Regina, I'm surprised no one had told you."

"Hm? Told me what?"

"Well, I don't want to be the barer of bad news. But I guess I have to seeing as how..." Robin scanned the courtyard to see that it was only the two of them left outside. "Nobody else is around to tell you."

"What is it?" Regina asked slightly panicked.

"Well Henry wasn't here today because he got into a fight with a few of the other students. The poor little guy ended up getting suspended along with the others." Robin told her regretfully.

Regina let her gaze fall as an inexplicable feeling of disappointment and sadness washed over her. She remembered what Henry told her when they first met. He was a victim of bullying and Regina was saddened that someone as bright and intelligent as Henry had to go through such a trivial time in his life. "Bullies." Regina muttered but Robin heard her and nodded in response.

"The school seems to be doing a good job with handling the matter. So I wouldn't worry to much about him. He'll be back in no time."

That didn't seem to make things any better. Henry had suffered at the hands of bullies and he also missed the Thanksgiving Fair, which Regina thought he was eager to attend. "Well, thanks for passing the word along." Regina stated in a rather somber tone. She felt like she'd come down from an amazing high much too quickly. "I think I'll just hold on to this." She dangled the batman keychain from her finger before she stuffed into her coat pocket. "I'd like to give it to him myself. Do you know when his suspension is lifted by chance?"

"Three days."

Regina gave a curt nod before she turned to leave. Next Thursday she would be back, and hopefully she'd be able to say a proper goodbye to her favorite student at Brearly.

She trudged along the sidewalk, deciding to walk instead of call for a driver, and she regretted her choice even more with each passing step. She told herself to go home yet she found herself on the familiar path to place that most certainly not where she lived. She found herself on her way to Cassie's in hopes that Emma would be there.

She let out a huge sigh of relief upon entering the lounge and Emma was in her normal spot. And everything was just as it usually was. Except, something was a little different. One thing, one tiny little detail really. Regina found herself rooted to her spot as she saw a stranger, a man, throw his arm carelessly around Emma's shoulders as they both laughed at something as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

She dry swallowed as she thought about how she could possibly approach the situation. First, she thought, she should probably move from in front of the door. She didn't need to draw any extra or unwanted attention to herself. She looked to a nearby table that occupied a couple, the waiter had just sat the bill on their table, and suddenly Regina was struck with a plan. The actress swiftly walked over to the table and picked up the bill. "Don't worry, this one's on me." She said to the two and they smiled gratefully without putting up much of a fight.

The actress didn't care what the price was. She merely wanted to see who the man was without drawing Emma's attention to herself. So she pulled out her debit card and walked up to the other side of the bar where she was sure Emma wouldn't notice her.

They were laughing. They looked happy and lost in their own little world Regina noted.

"Can I get you anything?" The bartender approached her with a friendly smile.

Regina snapped her gaze away from the two and shook her head before she slid her debit card and bill towards the other woman. "I just need to pay."

"Alright I'll be right back with your receipt."

The brunette nodded silently as her attention shifted back to her blonde affliction. Emma seemed so relaxed in his embrace, nothing like how she acted whenever Regina was around. It was refreshing to see her with her guard down completely. She wondered, briefly, if it would be a good idea to go say hello. She was beginning to feel like abut of a creeper spying on Emma , but when the bartender brought her back the receipt she just opted on crumpling the piece of paper and sliding off of her stool.

She shrugged her coat on for a better fit and prepared herself to be hit with the harsh winds outside, and just as she reached her hand out to pull the door open- "Regina?"

It was Emma and the brunette knew it. But she had nothing to say to the blonde so she went ahead and opened the door to walk out, but before she could ET out completely a small hand effectively stopped her and spun her around, pulling her back into the lounge.

"So you're completely ignoring me now?" Emma asked playfully, this was new.

But Regina couldn't even enjoy this new side of Emma as her eyes kept making their way past green eyes to see the handsome man sitting at the bar. "No, I uh-" she scratched her head and looked around trying to find an escape. "I didn't notice you." Liar.

Emma seemed to have taken that bate as she nodded. "Well... how are you? You seem a little... off today." The blonde inquired.

Regina took a step back, physically needing space between them, and she shrugged her shoulders. "I'm fine, I just- want to go is all."

"Long day?" Emma asked cutely, and Regina had to bite her bottom lip. Curse Emma Swan for making her feel so weak all of the time.

"Yea." She conceded. "And it just keeps getting longer." Regina glanced past the blonde once again to the man awaiting the blonde at the bar.

"Okay." She nodded before she stuffed her hands into her pant pockets. "You could come sit with me, at the bar, I just have-"

Emma started to say only to be cut off by Regina. "I don't think that would be a good idea, Emma. I'm not really in the mood to deal with this right now."

The blonde flashed her a confused look with a half smile to accompany it. "Deal with what? I'm just trying to have a conversation with you." Regina could sense the frustration in Emma's voice, and the last thing she wanted to do was upset the blonde. Everything in her screamed to just not say anything, but she wouldn't be Regina Mills if she didn't stick her foot in her mouth at least once a day now would she?

"I don't want to deal with you or, or him." Regina pointed to the guy who was now looking at the two women with a dopey smile on his face. "I just, I can't right now."

The blonde didn't seem all to pleased with that answer as a frown set on her face. "Fine. I won't ask you to then." And that was all the blonde said before she turned on her heels to leave.

Emma wait! I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry. She almost stopped her, but she didn't. Instead Regina in all of her stubbornness watched Emma return to her awaiting suitor. She felt anger and disappointment settle in the pit of her stomach as jealousy wracked her body. The only thing she could do was leave Cassie's without another word. It was the only way to save her dignity.


	7. Chapter 7

Regina walked into her apartment and kicked off her boots. She clawed and grabbed at her coat zipper, feeling desperate to get out of the layers upon layers of clothing she'd donned. She felt hot all of a sudden. She was embarrassed at her behavior. Her mild temper tantrum could have very well wiped away any or all progress she had made with Emma, and she couldn't help but taunt herself about it. She just wanted this night to be over already.

She contemplated calling someone to vent to like Kathryn or David, but she opted that idea out when she figured they were both probably together doing heaven knows what. And she most certainly couldn't call Mary Margret seeing as how she had proved to be very unsupportive in Regina's love life thus far. So that left her to herself to wallow in her own misery and overthink everything that happened that night.

"I am becoming very pathetic." The actress concluded as she took a bottle of wine down from the cabinets. "But, no matter how much of a mess I make of my social life, I know that I will always have wine." She concentrated on pouring her glass, stopping at the halfway point. "And as long as there is wine in the world, everything will somehow turn out fine." She said hopefully before she eyed her glass and then filled it to the brim. "That's better."

She took in an impressionable gulp and made her way back to her living room, and in doing so, she told herself that she would worry about the whole Emma thing tomorrow. Tonight she would celebrate the one good thing that came out of her day, and that was her upcoming feature. This was a big deal it called for a celebration and for her to be happy and certainly not mopey.

But why did Regina still feel terrible about what she said to Emma, even after she told herself not to think about it? She pouted and whined as she clutched her wine glass, careful not to spill any because that would take her evening from a disaster to just irreparable. "What is wrong with me? Why am I caring so much lately?" This was never a problem before. Maybe Kathryn was right, Emma Swan was breaking Regina Mills further and further with each passing day. She felt like a crazy woman who had questioned herself more in the time of meeting and getting to know Emma than she did during her teenaged years when she discovered that she preferred girls over boys.

"Pathetic." Regina nodded. She sat in her living room just letting her thoughts consume her for, she didn't know how long, when there was a soft knock on her living room door. She furrowed her eyebrows, because she wasn't expecting anyone nor did she receive any messages saying to start expecting a visitor. She hadn't planned for anybody to come.

So one can only imagine the look of shock when Regina swung her apartment door open and there standing just over her threshold was the very cause of her inner turmoil. "Emma?" She gasped. "What are you- how did you?" She had to wipe her eyes, but she was seeing perfectly fine. It was definitely Emma standing at her door. "How do you know where I live?" She finally managed to ask.

Emma inhaled and turned to fine anything else to look at aside from Regina. "This is embarrassing, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the one who is supposed to be pursuing you right now. Not after you were the one to completely blow me off." Regina listened as the blonde rambled, well half listened, as she tried to rewire her brain to think of a plausible explanation as to why Emma was at her door. "Which, I think, I deserve an apology for by the way."

"You're here because you want me to say sorry?" Regina couldn't help the sass in her voice, it came naturally. Especially when she wanted to call BS.

The blonde sighed as she shook her head. "No," she finally stated with a defeated sigh. "Not really. I followed you here because, I don't know, I was worried or something." The actress had to fight a smirk, so maybe Emma wasn't as impassive about things as she liked to let on. "You said you'd had a long day, and it's not really like you to completely blow me off, kind of like you did. So," Emma scuffed her boot against the floor. "Maybe, I mean I was thinking, you could let me in and you could tell me what happened."

Regina's mouth fell open. She couldn't have heard that right. But she did, Emma was standing right there staring at her and waiting rather impatiently for an answer. "This was a bad idea, wasn't it?" Emma mumbled. "I'll go." She turned to leave, but Regina quickly snapped out of her own musings and reached out to stop her.

"No, don't go... come in, actually. I'm sorry, you just caught me off guard. This definitely wasn't supposed to happen." She stepped out of the way so that Emma could walk in and she shut the door behind her. "Um, wine?" She asked as she frantically tried to get herself together.

"Yes please." Emma smile sweetly.

Regina flashed her a smile and thanked the heavens that she had a reason to disappear from Emma's sights for a few moments. "Okay, I'll be right back, sit anywhere." Regina said nervously before she scurried into the kitchen.

The first thing she did was clutch at the counters, she needed to ground herself. "Pull yourself together Mills." Regina scolded herself quietly. "Emma Swan is in your living room, and you will not, I repeat, will not try to sleep with her, say anything that will ruin this, or bring up that guy at the bar. You will follow her lead. Deal?" She nodded as she poured a second glass of wine. "Deal."

"Okay, it's official, I've lost it." She said as she took in a deep breath and made her way back into the living room. "Here you are."

Emma accepted the glass from Regina's outstretched hand. "Thank you... look I hope me showing up here isn't too weird or anything." She worried.

"No, no it's fine. I was just..." Regina looked around at her place. "Throwing myself a pity party in your honor." Wow, embarrassing.

Emma tilted her head in curiosity as she tried to stifle a laugh. "What?"

"Oh goodness." The actress hid hear flushed cheeks behind her hand. "You haven't been here for five minutes and I've already embarrassed myself."

"Regina it's fine, just relax."

"You're right... I just wasn't expecting you to show up at my door. I mean you are the last person I ever expected to see. It's... good, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're here, just very unexpected."

"I see, so maybe to take the edge off of things you could start by telling me what was bothering you at Cassie's, if you want?" The blonde tried and Regina nodded as she tried hard not to bring up whoever the guy was Emma was with.

"Um, yea, it was nothing really. Well, actually it was... um, I don't know if you've heard through media or anything, but this past week I was volunteering at Brearly, you know the private school?"

"Oh yea." The blonde nodded as she sipped her wine.

"Yea, and I met this kid there, really intelligent little boy. Plus he was super adorable, his name is Henry." Emma's eyes went wide and something must've went wrong in mid sip as she began to cough uncontrollably. "Are you okay?" Regina sat her own glass down and stood to aid the blonde. But Emma waved for her reclaim her seat.

"I'm fine, it just went down the wrong pipe is all." The blonde stuttered. "Did you say Henry?"

"Yea," Regina sent a few concerned looks towards Emma, not completely convinced that she was okay. "I can get you water instead." She offered.

"No, no really it's okay. Now what were you saying about Henry?"

The actress decided to let it go seeing as how Emma was speaking in her normal voice again instead of the strained one she sported a short moment ago. "Just that he's this really amazing kid, and he is, literally, the sweetest. He was in my volunteer group and it was a task to try and get him to participate with the others. And I found out, well he told me, that he was just a bit younger than the rest of the students and they bullied him for it, that's why he hesitated to work with the other children. Anyways I got him to work and he just had the cutest personality. He was witty, smart and funny. Really the most adorable kid I've seen."

"Okay, so he had something to do with why you were upset earlier?" Emma seemed to process that information slowly.

"Yea," she nodded. "He was really looking forward to the Thanksgiving Fair, but he couldn't come because apparently he got into a fight. His bullies. And that just bothers me you know? That poor little boy, he's only four and he has such an amazing personality, I'm sure if the other kids were smart enough to look past something as simple as his age and get to know him they would really like him... gosh, I wonder what his parents have to say?"

"Something tells me they probably weren't all to pleased with what happened." Emma chirped.

"Yea, but it's just so sad. To think that we're in 2016 and the whole bullying thing is still even a problem."

"Regina, I have something to tell you!" Emma stated, and it caught Regina completely off guard.

"Okay?" Regina said with a voice laced with confusion.

Emma struggled to say what she wanted to say, the actress could tell. But she waited patiently for the blonde to say whatever it was that just seemingly just sprung into her mind. "Uh, the guy at the bar, he was just my friend."

Well that wasn't exactly what Regina thought she would say.

"If you were wondering." She hurried to say. "I don't know if you were looking to talk to me back at Cassie's, even though you said you didn't notice me, I kind of caught you staring at us from across the bar. And I didn't know if you seeing us together kind of made things worse, but I just wanted to... clear the air." Emma finished weakly and if Regina wasn't mistaking she seemed a bit defeated?

Brown eyes studied blue eyes, true Regina was confused endlessly by Emma but she really thought she could detect a hint of regret in her gaze, and the way Emma fidgeted in her spot as if she were suddenly nervous only fueled her suspicions. "Are you sure that's all you wanted to say to me?" The actress questioned. "Because I have more wine if you need it." She tried to joke, but Emma didn't laugh.

"Actually, no, I should probably get going. It's getting late, and I'm growing a bit tired."

"Oh okay." Regina hurried to sit her glass down and walk Emma to the door. "Thank you so much for stopping by. I didn't know you cared that much." Again she tried to lighten the mood with a little comedy but Emma simply stepped over the threshold and gave a curt nod.

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me Regina." She said softly, resolutely.

"Well, hopefully that will change?" It was supposed to come off as confident and sexy but Regina only ended up sounding completely unsure of herself.

Emma gave her a small smile. "We'll see." She nodded before she disappeared down the hall.

Regina closed the door and rested her back against it. She was in heaven, even if things ended a little oddly. Emma Swan cared enough about her to seek her out. So Regina wasn't completely alone in this after all. Good to know

X

"Yes, I'm walking up the stairs of Brearly right now." She groaned as she listened to Mary Margret chastise her about how she was going to be late to her meeting at the Times headquarters. "It will only take a few minutes, I just need to give someone something and I'll be right over... No, Mary, it's not a woman. In fact it's a little boy, he left and impression on me and I want to thank him seeing as how we probably won't be seeing one another again... everything is not for publicity woman... okay, yes, alright I'll be there. Bye." She ended the call and walked up the last few stairs. "Geez." Regina shook her head before she strutted into the front office.

"Good Morning, how may I help you?" The front desk clerk asked politely.

"Is there a way I could have you page a student up here for me?"

The woman flashed Regina a baffled look. "I could, but you have to be a parent, a legal guardian or listed as a point of contact for the student. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to help you."

"Okay, so what if I just volunteered for the Thanksgiving Fair and I volunteered with the said kid I'm trying to get you to bring up here. I just want to give him something."

"Well, as I've stated, I wouldn't be able to help you ma'am."

Crap.

"Look, we can be in your site. I just want to give him this batman keychain." The actress held up the trinket for the clerk to see. "I'm not going to hurt him or kidnap the kid. I just want to say goodbye." The clerk blinked at her with unamused eyes. Clearly she wasn't budging on the matter. "Fine." Regina said angrily. "I have a meeting to get to anyway."

With that she stormed out of the office, and just as luck would have it, as soon as she stepped outside of the building all together she heard a high pitched voice squeal her name. "Ms. Mills!" And before she could process anything the bottom half of her body was being engulfed in a hug.

"Henry." She breathed as she took a knee to give the child a proper hug. "What a coincidence, I came here to give you something." She smiled and Henry mirrored her action. But when she pulled away she didn't miss the blue and purple tinted ring around his left eye. It made her heart clench in her chest as she swiped his hair out of his face.

"A gift?" He asked excitedly.

"Yea." She nodded before she pulled the keychain from her pocket. "It's batman, because I remembered that you like superheroes."

"Whoa." Henry cheered before he wrapped his arms tightly around Regina's neck once again. "Thank you so much!" He pulled away and turned to face in the opposite direction. "Mom! Hurry up, you need to meet someone." He yelled to the bottom of the stairs, and Regina wasn't sure how she missed her before. But Henry's mother wasn't too far behind him, she must've stopped to take a phone call. She had her back turned to them as she spoke and Regina stood to her feet to get a better look.

"Just a minute Henry, I'll be right up." She called without fully turning around.

Now why did that voice sound so familiar? Regina thought.

"I can't wait for you to meet my mom, you'll like her I think. She's really nice." Henry told Regina and the actress nodded in agreement.

"I bet she is."

"Okay, I'm here-" everything seemed to have somehow switched to slow motion when Regina brought her gaze up to meet Henry's mother's, she was instead met with those daring green eyes that she burned into her memory a while ago. That wasn't Henry's mom, couldn't be, because standing before her was Emma Swan.

The blonde stood frozen five feet away staring at her son and Regina Mills with a look of horror.

"Mom, look what Ms. Mills got me." He ran down the few steps that separated them and showed her his gift.

Emma hesitated to break their intense gaze, but eventually she looked down at her son and forced a smile. "Wow, that's so cool. Did you tell Ms. Mills thank you?" She asked and he nodded enthusiastically. "Okay, bud, how about you head inside to class and I'll take care of signing you in okay?" She kissed him and muttered an I love you before Henry ran back up the stairs to give Regina one last hug.

"See you later Ms. Mills okay?"

"Yes of course Henry." Regina responded on autopilot as she stared the other blonde woman with a fierce gaze.

The moment Henry let her go, the actress found herself desperate to be as far away from Emma as possible. "Regina, wait." Emma tried to clasp her by the arm but the brunette was much too quick. She had to follow. "Regina, I can explain."

"Explain what Emma?" Regina whipped around with so much fire in her eyes. It caused Emma to almost run straight into her, but she was able to come to an awkward halt before they collided. "Explain to me how you neglected to tell me that you have a son? What? Did you just forget to mention it?"

"I wasn't ready yet." Emma tried to reason.

"You didn't think that I deserved to know after I told you-" Regina roughly combed her gloved clasped hands through her hair. She didn't even know where to start or what she wanted to say. "You listened to me talk about this place," She motioned to the schoolhouse. "About your son! Why didn't you say anything then? What did you think I was going to do? Run? Becau-"

"Yea!" Emma practically yelled, as her own temper began to rise. "You want to know the truth. That's exactly what I thought. And I just wasn't ready to see you leave just yet. Im just starting to enjoy this, enjoy you. Okay? And I didn't want to make anything complicated by involving my son. I don't want complicated right now, I don't need complicated." She said with conviction. "Regina, I don't know how we'll end up. This is all new for me, as I've told you, I'm questioning my sexuality I'm not even sure if you're what I want and on the other hand, Regina, what you feel for me, it isn't real. You don't even know me."

Regina raised her eyebrows and took a step back as if to say 'wow' because everything that Emma had just said to her, hurt way more than she wanted to admit. "That's because you won't let me have that chance! And don't you dare tell me how I feel about you, especially when you keep me at an arm's length. You think that I pursue you for the thrill. You've said the only reason I keep coming back is because you keep telling me no. Well I have news for you Ms. Swan, this game of cat and mouse is played out. It's not fun, it's not exciting, and quite frankly it hurts okay? I have feelings to protect too Emma. And I've been trying to play it safe with you while you've just been as reckless and careless with me as you want to be, and I allowed you to be. Because," Regina briefly glanced to the sky, as if that would aid in holding back the tears. She didn't want Emma to see just how much she was able to affect her. "Because what I feel is a little more intricate than what you've been giving me credit for. And I know you maybe have questions about your sexuality and me in general. But, I could've been there for you, I could've helped you if you ever granted me the benefit of the doubt, but you didn't. So I guess we'll never know how we would've turned out or what could've been, now will we?"

"Regina." Emma breathed out as she tried to move closer, but the brunette wasn't having any of it.

"No, your true intentions are revealed. I was merely just a play thing. Someone you wanted to use as an experiment. Don't deny it. Just do me a favor, and stay away from me. Stay far, far away from me." Regina concluded with finality before she turned to walk away.

Emma didn't call out for her, didn't plead for her to come back and she didn't chase after her. Regina hadn't expected her to. But the weight of it all tumbling down her made her face crumple as countless tears finally got their release. She felt like a fool.

The blonde watched her leave, and if Regina had decided to turn around at any point during her venture to storm off she would've found Emma there waiting, long after the actress was out of her site. She would've seen that she wasn't the only one hurting.

**Thank you all so much for the support! **


	8. Chapter 8

"I've never seen you throw yourself into work like you've been doing for the past week." Mary Margret commented as she sat Regina's morning coffee down on her desk. She lingered there for several moments as her client simply kept her nose buried in her work. "Hello? Earth to Regina."

"Are you complaining?" Regina asked absentmindedly. She was trying to busy herself with memorizing her new script. In the past week she not only agreed, begrudgingly, to audition for the Evil Queen role her manager suggested, but she also happened to land it, effortlessly of course. The casters were floored after she performed her piece, she could embody the essence of the Evil Queen, they said, and Regina was exactly what they were looking for, from the way she acted, the way she carried herself, and even down to the way she looked. It wasn't such a bad thing for the actress herself either, as much as she hated to admit it. Becoming the Evil Queen gave her a chance to channel all of her newfound emotions elsewhere, and this gave Regina every excuse not to think about Emma or that nagging feeling of wanting to reach out her.

"No." Mary waved her hands dismissively. "Not at all. It's really quite refreshing to see a change in you is all. Don't forget you have your interview and photo shoot tomorrow. Yay." The manager squealed with excitement while Regina studiously read her lines while she half listened. "Okay..." A sort of realization began to wash of over Mary. Regina had been uncharacteristically quiet for a while now. "And don't forget you need to go to the airport to pick up your mom when you're done here." Regina gave a nod, and that was the only acknowledgment the actress gave. "If there's anything you need to tell me, I mean anything at all, you know you could talk to me right?" She put it out there and hoped Regina would take the bait, because Mary Margret could sense something was off.

Regina's nostrils flared as she took in a particularly large amount of air through them. This was frustrating for her and she wasn't entirely sure why. So far her manager was the only one to even notice Regina's sudden change in behavior. It wasn't a bad thing, Regina knew how Mary Margret was, but the simple fact of the matter was that Regina would just rather bury herself in work while she neglected to acknowledge she'd ever been embarrassed or got her feelings hurt. "No, no nothing that I can think of." She replied calmly. "Just trying to, focus." She pointed to her script in an attempt to get her manager to stop looking at her as if Mary Margret knew exactly what was wrong.

Mary gave her a lingering look as if to say that she didn't believe it and Regina was silently pleading with her eyes for the other woman to just leave it alone. "Okay, well I'll let you focus." Finally fell from her lips, and the actress couldn't help the small breath of relief that followed those words. "Call me if you need anything though." She added for good measure before she gathered her belongings and made a quiet exit.

She stared at the pages in front of her for several moments more, and nothing. Suddenly, she couldn't even bring herself to process what she was reading. Regina struggled to figure out which was worse, the persistent questions she received from her manager or the persistent thoughts that flooded her mind when she was left to herself.

The actress had found herself in a dangerous cycle of not wanting to be alone but also turning down every social event that presented itself. She effectively avoided both Kathryn and David, which was easy enough these days. They were too focused on going public with their relationship to notice Regina's sudden withdrawal anyway. She'd avoided Cassie's like the plague for the past week for the obvious reasons. So now was a better time than ever to drown herself in work. Production for the movie wouldn't start until after the holidays, but in the meantime she had to prepare for table reads, publicity interviews and not to mention she still had to do a feature for the Times.

The actress massaged her temples in order to try to alleviate some of the stress she felt. Forgetting was such tedious work, masking may have been the better term. Trying to suppress her feelings and emotions, trying to become numb to the pain was what was especially strenuous. There was only a matter of time before Regina would have to stop running from everything, in order to catch her breath, figuratively speaking. But she was determined to block out anything and all things the even came remotely close to Emma Swan.

X

Cora Mills wasn't one for pleasantries by any means, but she found it just a tad bit odd that her daughter had picked her up from the airport and all she got as a greeting was simply a half given hug and a mumbled 'hello mother.' She felt a little more than entitled to a more appropriate greeting, one in which her daughter acted excited to see her. Regina did leave her mother waiting at the airport for nearly an hour before she finally pulled herself away from her work to see that she was late. The older woman was only able to flash her daughter a disapproving look while Regina helped with her bags.

The car ride was especially awkward for the two of them. Usually the time would be spent with the two of them filling in each other on every single detail about their lives , and the car would be full of laughter. However with Regina's current mission to try and occupy herself with thoughts of work and more work she found herself completely lost in her own reverie while her mother silently wondered what was going on in her daughter's head.

It wasn't until Cora cleared her throat, and rather loudly, that Regina showed any signs of realizing there was another person in the car with her. "Oh." She jolted in response, not expecting the abrupt break in silence. "Do you want me to turn on the music or anything?" She asked lamely.

The woman flashed her daughter a sideways glance as she slowly began to peel her gloves off. "Your father says that he's sorry he can't make it out for Thanksgiving this year... I suppose you would know that if you ever answered your phone anymore." She was just so casual in the way that she guilt tripped her daughter. Years of practice, it was natural by this time.

"Yes, I know mother. I got the voicemails."

"And have you spoken to your sister at all? Helena's been especially worried about you lately." Regina glanced to her mother before she focused her attention back on the road. "She says she hasn't heard from you in over a month."

Regina could only blame that one in herself. She and Helena just lived different lives on the opposite sides of the nation. There was a slight time difference and it just so happened that they were always in the middle of something when the other tried to call. "I've been busy." She gulped, because she knew Cora was on to her. She could never get anything past her mother and that was one thing that had never changed.

"Well surely that's never stopped you from staying in contact with your family before." Cora said knowingly, and Regina knew it to be so. "You need to be better about involving us in your life. Because if something happens or if something is going on, Gina, that we should know about..." Her mother was giving her the look. The one where she already knew something was wrong, but she was just waiting on her daughter to open up to her. "You need to know that we're here for you."

"The script..." When Regina saw the look on her mother's face her words immediately died on her tongue. "Ok fine, I'll call dad and Helena, and I'll be better about staying in touch."

Cora had to fight from giving a dramatic eye roll. Her daughter was so obvious it pained her to not just flat out say what she already knew. "Though I will hold you accountable to those words. I was not looking for that answer and you know it." She waited for Regina to come clean about whatever it was that was wrong but when her daughter looked at her with a big question mark on her face Cora couldn't beat around the bush any longer. "Alright, out with it." She motioned her hand in a circular motion as if Regina would fill in the blank so easily. "Who is it?" Cora asked knowingly. "And don't play dumb, I know heartbreak when I see it."

"Mother! I'm not heartbroken." Regina almost seemed offended by the accusation.

"Okay, but you're sulking, and don't you deny it." She added when Regina tried to speak against her mother yet again. "So I ask again, who is it?"

Her eyes bounced from each car that drove in front of them as she contemplated letting out all of her frustrations. "I don't want to talk about it." The actress sighed heavily. "Because talking about it means I have to relive the embarrassment and I don't want to." She finished simply. "I'd much rather sit here and listen to music with you."

The older woman gave her daughter a sympathetic look, as she played with different ideas to try and get her daughter to open up to her. It was unlike Regina to be so aloof and that's why Cora refused to dismiss the topic as she knew her daughter hoped she would do. "You know? I think I know what can make you feel better." Cora said enticingly.

"Oh yea?" Her mother nodded enthusiastically and Regina flashed her a half smile. "What could you possibly have up your sleeve?"

"Well, do you remember that one summer when your girlfriend Staci, was it?"

"Amy, actually."

Cora waved her off dismissively. "Staci, Amy who really remembers? But you remember the summer she broke up with you and you were just moping all over the place... while we were on vacation." She flashed Regina pointed look. "There was nothing and no one that could get you out of the rut you were in, that is until-"

"Nana made that homemade ice cream and we watched the Notebook, of all things. She didn't ask me why I was sad or when I would stop being sad she was just there."

"Right." Cora nodded with a smile. "So what do you say? I won't ask you about what happened or who she is. I will leave it alone for now. I just want us to eat homemade ice cream together and talk about anything you want, and I want us to laugh, and cry if you need to... but Regina, sweetheart, you need to okay?"

She didn't really have any more fight left in her at that point. "I say..." Regina repositioned her hands on the steering wheel. "That, that worked when I was 15 and I'm definitely not 15 anymore, but honestly, that sounds like the best offer I've gotten in a long time." Both women shared a smile and they road in a comfortable silence for the remainder of the trip.

When they finally found themselves out of the awful New York traffic and back at Regina's home, Cora wasted no time in holding true to her word. Thankfully, and amazing enough her daughter had all of the ingredients she needed to make their frosty treat. It was accompanied by hot chocolate afterwards. They realized, in short, that it probably wasn't the best idea to eat ice cream when it was practically freezing outside.

"Next time, we'll save the ice cream for the summer heartbreak." Cora joked and they both shared a laugh. "We'll have to come up with a neat little twist on hot chocolate so it can be our signature for the winter heartbreaks."

"I'm not heartbroken." She said softly with remnants of a smile still lingering on her lips.

"That's right, I'm sorry dear. I wasn't supposed to bring that up."

Regina merely shrugged in response. The time spent with her mother was just what she needed whether she wanted it in the beginning or not. And the idea of talking about things, about Emma didn't seem like the end of her world all of a sudden. "I'm embarrassed. I feel foolish. And I can't lie, I'm hurt, but I'm not heartbroken. I just got so consumed with this one person so quickly, I just, I don't know, I really wanted something to come from it and that just didn't happen."

Cora listened to her daughter intently, and she waited a few moments before she spoke in an even tone. "I know you like to keep everyone at a safe distance and that's just a defense mechanism. But every once in a while someone is going to get past every barrier you've put up without you even knowing, and those are the people you don't want to walk away from."

Regina felt the sting of tears at the base of her eyelids, threatening to spill over. It was just something about her mother's words that always had the ability to break her down, no matter how kind or gentle they came across as. "I know, I know. But I found out something she hadn't planned on telling me about. Something that is pretty important and I was so angry that she didn't tell me even though it is completely her choice to decide what she will and will not share with me. I just felt like I deserved to at least know this about her." Images of a smiling Henry passed through her brain. Emma was crazy to ever think Regina would've ran away from her just because she had a son. "And I blew up, I got angry. I yelled at her, she yelled at me and I told her to just stay away from me... So far she's been doing a great job at doing just that."

"Well Regina there's only one of three ways you can go from here, but I need you to realize that whatever happened between the two of you that caused this drift is now over. It's happened and now it's done. So you can either continue to pretend to be unbothered by it and suffer on the inside while you agonize over if she'll ever reach out to you or not, you can accept things for what they were and move on, or you can simply seek her out. Surely you know of a way to get in contact with her."

The actress hesitated as she stared at her mother through watery eyes. "I don't know... I don't think I want to risk getting involved with her in any way again. I fear that the more time I spend with her I possibly could fall in love, and the next time she pulls something like this it would feel so much worse."

"Who said there has to be a next time? What if she pulled her act together after this one time?" Cora suggested.

She knew that her mother was trying to giver her some hope, but the last thing she needed was to get her hopes up. "I just don't want to risk it." Regina said as she stood from her spot and took her mother's, now empty mug, and carried it into the kitchen. "Besides, it's been a week and I'm sure if she wanted to reconcile I would've heard from her by now." The actress finished sadly, and she listened out for a response but Cora didn't have an answer for that one.

X

Regina walked towards the Times headquarters's entrance with her mother in tow, and she was regretting every moment of her life. Thus far Cora Mills had wanted to document their entire day with non-stop selfies and videos. Regina needed to remind herself to give her sister a call and ask her why she ever taught their mother how to use a phone.

"Regina, get me by the sign." Cora encouraged.

"Mother it's cold. Let's just go inside." Regina whined as she took the phone from Cora. She already knew that there was no amount of complaining that could deter or bring her mother down, not even a notch. Clearly, Cora didn't come to New York just to spend Thanksgiving with her daughter. She came to see the sights and get the 'behind the scenes' look into the glamorous life of her movie star daughter. She couldn't help it, she was a proud mother.

She posed as Regina took several pictures of her, from several different angles because Cora didn't like the first one... or the second or third one. They were very unflattering, as she put it. But when she finally got the targeted look Cora finally relented and they were able to enter the building without anymore photos to Regina's pleasure.

But her mother quickly grew bored with the whole process after Tori introduced herself and she and Regina actually got down to working. It wasn't as glamorous as Cora made it up in her head to be. The work Regina did was actually, work, and quite truthfully it was very lackluster. Cora wasn't interested in the slightest, it seemed much more appealing to explore the building instead.

So she feigned having to go to the bathroom and slipped away. She was seeing all sorts of things, and documenting via photos and videos and going places she wasn't exactly allowed to be in.

"Excuse me miss? Can I ask you what you're doing?"

Cora nearly jumped out of her skin the very moment that soft voice reached her ears. She had been caught red handed, holding her phone up as she recorded a video of the building. She fumbled with her cellular device to try and exit out before the woman noticed it. "Oh, I uh... I was just looking for the um uh... the bathroom."

"Right." The woman looked completely unconvinced as she cocked her hip to the side and stared at Cora through unamused eyes.

"Okay fine. I just wanted to get some good photos and videos of my time here so that I could share it with my husband when I return home. I mean how many people can say they've been to the New York Times Headquarters? This is a once in a life time experience." Cora tried to reason.

The woman seemed to take what she said into consideration. "Well then it's a good thing I stopped you while you were ahead... you're getting all of the boring mundane things. I can give you an exclusive behind the scenes look."

A huge grin spread across the older woman's face as a wave of excitement washed over her. "Really?"

"Really." The woman confirmed. "Just follow me, we can start at my office. It's probably the most impressive office here, or maybe I'm being biased."

"What are you like the boss or something?" Cora said in a completely joking manner, not at all expecting the woman to actually nod her head.

"Actually, I am. I am the editor and publisher. The New York Times is my magazine." She smiled a friendly smile as she watched Cora's mouth fall open.

"I need to get a picture with you. My daughter will never believe this." She gushed as she held her phone out at and arm's length and the woman moved closer to her and smiled at the camera. "I can't wait to show everyone this."

"I'm Emma by the way." She extended her hand for Cora to shake. "Emma Swan."

Cora smiled sweetly at Emma and took her hand. "Just call me Cora."

Meanwhile Regina had been busy drilling through her interview with Tori and they were finally done. "Great job." The blonde complimented as she went for a double high five. "That's it chica we're done here."

"You made it pretty easy. But it seems I've lost my mother somewhere along the way."

Tori furrowed her eyebrows and looked around as if this was the first time she noticed Cora hadn't returned. "Oh yea, she never did come back. But don't worry, I'll see if security can track her down."

"Good, I'm sorry she wandered off. Who knows what she's gotten herself into." They spoke as they left the confines of Tori's office.

The blonde giggled in response and shook her head. "I'm sure she couldn't have gotten herself into that much-" Regina noticed how Tori went from looking at her to looking past her at something in the distance behind her. "Uh, oh maybe I spoke too soon." Tori pointed to where she saw her boss walking up with Cora.

Regina turned to see what the blonde had been talking about and the moment she turned around her heart stopped. How on earth? Of all the people in the world Cora managed to find Emma? What were even the odds? "Crap."

Emma nor Cora had noticed the two women standing in the distance yet. They were to busy speaking animatedly to one another, probably about their recent adventure around the company building.

"Crap is right... She either did something horrible or something amazing. That's Emma Swan." Tori informed her.

"What is she doing here?" Regina asked dreadfully.

"She's my boss." Tori answered simply. "The one who thought this feature belonged to no one but you. And she was right of course."

And in that moment Emma looked up from her conversation with Cora as if she heard Regina and Tori talking about her and immediately as if it were fate her eyes locked with Regina's. That's when the actress knew she needed to get out of there. She screamed at her feet to work. But as much as she told herself to leave or at least look away, she stood rooted in her spot fixed in a trance like state.

Cora picked up on the way her new found friend seemed to be completely lost in something just ahead of them. When she found her daughter to be the object of Emma's leering she almost immediately put two and two together.

"Oh, that's my daughter." Cora told Emma, and the blonde whipped her head around so fiercely her hair flew around and slapped her in the face.

"You're her mother?"

"Yes." The woman confirmed. "And you know what? I'd like for you to meet her. You would love each other." She gushed.

Emma took in a deep breath and glanced back up to the spot that Regina once occupied. For when she looked back up the woman was no longer there. Green eyes scanned the perimeter and but no Regina in sight. "I-I'm sorry, I just need to-"

Before she could finished her sentence she sped up her pace intoa slow jog. Cora watched her go as she smiled knowingly.

"Regina! Wait!"

The brunette couldn't find it within herself to stop and turn around, to afford Emma another chance to do what exactly. To say what?

"Wait!" And by now the blonde was close, the brunette could hear her frantic footsteps. "Please, let me talk to you." Emma begged.

Regina continued to walk as she shuffled through her purse like she heard none of what Emma was saying to her.

"Regina, I'm sorry! I'm terribly sorry. Please, talk to me."

"I guess I should thank you, really. I mean you're the only reason I got my feature." The actress snapped. "I bet you were never going tell me that either, or that you basically are the owner of The Times."

"Please." The blonde continued to plead.

"Two minutes." The actress growled out, just after turning to face the blonde. "You have two minutes to say what you want to say before I get in my car and leave. And trust me Emma, after I leave this time, you won't need to worry yourself with the possibility of ever seeing me again."

Emma's breath hitched in her throat and she found herself flinching at Regina's sharp words. "Okay two minutes." She agreed.

"Tick, tock Ms. Swan."

"Right, okay, I just want to say that I'm terribly sorry for what I said to you Regina. I never meant to make you feel like you were some plaything for me. Or that I was using you as an experiment. That's not what I meant. I get it and I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I said and I'm sorry for keeping the fact that Henry is my son from you. And I was going to tell you that I recommended your feature. I just never had the chance to. I sent Tori to you at the Thanksgiving Fair only shortly after finding out you were even volunteering at Brearly. However I didn't know that you'd met my son in the process." Regina still seemed unconvinced.

"Listen, I don't know when or how you made such an impression on me. I never in a million years expected you to, but you did. And trust me when I say that your absence is felt, and I miss you." Emma spoke and stood as if Regina was some fragile, skittish being that would flee if Emma said the wrong thing or if she made any sudden movements. "And it is completely up to you to walk away right here and right now, but I want you to stay. And if you do, I promise I will be more forthcoming about my feelings. I'll take your feelings into consideration, and I won't treat this like it means nothing to me, because it does. It means something. So, please just... give me that chance?"

"And you want me to just take your word for it?" Regina was supposed to sound strong and unrelenting, she had every intention to be as ice cold as the Evil Queen. But she was Regina Mills, a human being with feelings, and evil she was not. So when her voice cracked it simply made her sound vulnerable. She could hear her own heartbeat in her ears. Her hands were shaking and her palms were sweating. She could feel herself caving and she was fighting hard not to.

"No," Emma sighed. "Let me prove it to you."

For a moment Regina just knew she would say yes, but instead "No, I'm sorry Emma. I can't." Came out instead. She was surprised she managed to stay so obstinate in her decision thus far, but a few more minutes in the blonde's presence and she would no longer be singing the same tune. So she turned and began to walk away.

"Henry's been mentioning you!" Came Emma's desperate attempt to get Regina to change her mind. And though it was a low blow, it was, however, effective enough to get the actress to stop. She didn't dare turn around, but she most certainly was listening. "Ever since you gave him that keychain and he witnessed us together, he thinks that we're friends. He asks if you'll come around practically everyday."

Regina waited, Emma did the same. "And what do you tell him?"

"That, I would try my best to get you to show your face again... I mean, if you can't accept me anymore could you at least- I mean, maybe we can plan something so that he can see you again. He really likes you Regina, and I know you really enjoy him too."

"That isn't fair Ms. Swan and you know it."

"Yes, I know." Emma found some solace in a small rock that was near her foot. She kicked it lightly and watched it roll away, she simply needed something aside from her nerves to focus on.

"Tell Henry," the actress worried her bottom lip, because she knew that this was a grave risk she was about to take and that she would regret this later. "Tell Henry that I would like to see him too." Then Regina turned around to really look at Emma. "But, if I agree to this then realize that I'm only agreeing to do this for Henry."

The blonde gave a lopsided smile as she nodded. "For Henry, yes of course."

**You guys literally make my day with your comments. I love you all! Sidenote: does anybody watch Orphan Black? Because if so *Cophine* obviously, but also does anybody want to explain to me how I've suddenly become Tatiana Maslany trash? Okay pointless A/N over. Later guys! **


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